


A New Life

by ReidFan



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-18 21:06:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 21,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7330657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReidFan/pseuds/ReidFan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The BAU's newest case takes them to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Spencer Reid winds up in peril. Melissa makes a discovery at home, and Anna has a new puppy and a request for her mother. #4 in my ongoing Spencer Reid/Melissa Martin Reid series</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A New Life

©mccabebabe@hotmail.com

Criminal Minds (PG, drama, crime, romance)

Reid/OC (Spencer Reid/Melissa Martin Reid)

#4 in my ongoing series Spencer and Melissa

 

Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid, unsub, and all that belongs to CBS/MarkGordon Productions etc. I own nothing. Even Melissa and Anna Martin Reid actually belong to someone else.

 

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“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies”-Mother Theresa

 

“A baby fills a place in your heart that you never knew was empty.”-Anonymous

 

“The littlest feet make the biggest footprints in our heart.”-Anonymous

 

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“Mommy? Where are you? Are you okay?” Anna called as she walked from her room through the hallway to the master bedroom looking unsuccessfully for her mother. “Mommy?” she called again, sounding more and more frightened, as there was no response. She could see the empty bed; the undisturbed side where Daddy usually slept was still neatly made. Her mother’s side, with blankets and sheet all askew and pillow dented was still warm to the touch. “Mommy?” she called again, the alarm level in the child’s voice increasing with each call. 

 

Behind her, the family’s newly acquired Rottweiler cross puppy followed his beloved Anna step for step. While Muttli didn’t share the child’s concern for her missing mother, he was immediately perceptive to Anna’s distress and pushed his nose into the back of her legs sympathetically. Anna plopped herself down onto the floor next to him and gathered the pup into her arms. She hugged him to her face for a long moment before setting him back down and rising to her feet.

 

“Mommy?” her voice quivered as her concern heightened. As her eyes started to fill with tears, she heard the toilet flush in the master bathroom and breathed a sigh of relief as she realised her mother wasn’t gone, just in the bathroom. She wiped at her eyes and took a few steps towards the closed bathroom door before the sounds of distress from behind that door brought her to an abrupt stop.

 

Melissa heard Anna calling for her but she was quite indisposed and couldn’t reply immediately. Another bout of retching incapacitated her for several moments and finally she managed to acknowledge Anna’s call.

 

“I’m in here, honey. I’m sorry,” she exclaimed between deep breaths, struggling to her feet and opening the bathroom door to give Anna visual reassurance that she was alive, if not so well. Anna rushed to hug her, Muttli following immediately. 

 

“Are you sick, Mommy?” Anna asked her, stroking Melissa’s forehead. Together, they walked back to the bed and sat down on it. Muttli pushed between their legs and Anna bent forward to pick him up and set him on her lap. Melissa let the ‘no dog on the furniture’ rule slide as she put her arm around Anna and answered her.

 

“A little bit, honey. But it’s not serious. I will be okay.” 

 

“Should I stay home from school today to look after you, Mommy?”

 

“Oh, Anna,” Melissa began, hugging her daughter close. “That’s very sweet of you but I’m better already, and will be just fine. We need to have some breakfast. Did you let Muttli go out to do his business yet?”

 

She rose to finish dressing, acknowledging the affirmative nod Anna had given her about the dog and indicated Anna needed to go finish dressing herself as well. After her daughter left to comply with the request, Melissa looked wistfully at the undisturbed side of the bed. She made up the half she’d slept in and addressed the absent Spencer.

 

“I’m not totally sure yet, Spence, but I think,” she paused to fluff up her pillow as she finished straightening the bed, “I think we might be expecting. I wanna tell you in person though, hope this case in Cedar Rapids winds up soon.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

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Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner assembled his BAU members around the conference room table the Cedar Rapids Police Department had allocated to them for their investigation. The request for FBI help had come in the late afternoon the previous day. He’d called them all back to Quantico headquarters immediately but by the time they’d all returned, had a briefing and been able to fly out to Iowa, it was nearly midnight. Instead of going to the police station, Hotch had directed the team to go to their hotel rooms and retire for the night; they’d have an early start Friday morning. 

 

Spencer Reid sat at the table, rifling through the papers and photos of the case file. It bothered him that he’d had to go straight back to Quantico knowing they’d be flying out that night, and as a result he hadn’t had the opportunity to even say goodbye and I love you to his new wife and stepchild first. Since their marriage, almost three months earlier, Spencer had never ended a day without at least speaking to Melissa and Anna. He’d gotten into the habit of reading stories with Anna at her bedtime and missed those moments terribly when their routine was disturbed. And he and Melissa had vowed to set time aside every evening just to hold each other and talk. This just wasn’t going to happen tonight. And worse, Melissa had still been at work herself while he was commuting back to Quantico. By the time the team had been briefed and was finished going over Victimology on the jet, it was past Anna’s bedtime. He’d tried calling Melissa—several times--but it went to voicemail. It was past eleven--Iowa time--when they’d landed in Cedar Rapids, at which point Reid resigned himself to the fact that a good night text message to Melissa would have to suffice. 

 

He’d tried calling again this morning, and again his call went straight to voicemail. A little disappointed, he attributed that to the time. Melissa would be getting Anna off to school right about now, he realised, though that didn’t explain why she hadn’t at least acknowledged his text from the previous night.

 

SSA David Rossi, who had arrived with a fresh carry out tray full of coffees for everyone, brought Reid out of his thoughts about home. Rossi watched as Reid shook way too many sugar packets into his drink and couldn’t resist commenting,

 

“I thought marriage would’ve sweetened you up enough. Does the new Mrs. Reid have an opinion about how much sugar you put in that coffee, Reid?”

 

Agents Lewis and Jareau laughed as they fixed their own coffees to their liking. Reid scowled good-naturedly as Hotchner concluded his phone call and joined the team at the table.

 

“I hope that look wasn’t for me, Reid,” Hotchner said with a twinkle in his eye.

 

“No Sir,” Reid assured him, sipping his coffee and setting one of the photos from the case file out for all to see. “These marks look like stab wounds from some sharp pointed instrument,” he indicated the torso wounds on the victim in the photo.” But there’s very little blood. Like they were done post mortem. We’d have to see the body to be sure, but,” he trailed off.

 

Hotchner nodded in agreement. “First, let’s go over what we do have. Victim number one. A high school teacher. Fifty-three year old Janet Tilsonberg, shot to death, leaves behind husband Mark and two grown children, both of whom live in other states. Second victim is Doctor Barbara Watson. Also shot to death. Our third victim found Monday morning in his shop is a forty-nine year old man who was a mechanic. David Austin has no family in Cedar Rapids; he’s originally from Mankato, Minnesota where his mother, a widow, still lives. He was also shot to death.”

 

As the team pored over the files, they made several observations.

 

“I have Garcia working on it, but there’s nothing to indicate they have anything in common. Except the unsub,” Rossi remarked.

 

“They all have stab wounds that appear to have been made after the victim was already dead,” JJ pointed out. “Overkill?”

 

“Maybe. Experimenting? But look, all three by a different weapon,” Rossi noted. “The man looks like he’s been stabbed by a tool, like a screwdriver or something.”

 

“And the teacher’s wounds are much larger, although there aren’t as many. Like…” Lewis trailed off, deep in thought.

 

“There’s nothing that ties the three together?” JJ asked. Hotch shook his head no and replied.

 

“Not that we’ve found yet. Rossi, you and Reid go to the medical examiner and find out everything you can about the victims there. I’m sure if you have a closer look, you’ll be able to determine exactly how those stab wounds were made,” Hotch directed. He referred to his tablet as he reread some of the information Garcia had uploaded and continued, “Lewis and JJ, find out what you can about these victims, interview the families. I’m going to go over what we have here again, start the geographic profile, and have Garcia dig into their backgrounds,” he paused for a moment as a member of the Cedar Rapids police force brought in a tray full of breakfast sandwiches for the team. The officer set the tray down on the table between the BAU members and made a sweeping gesture towards the food before commenting,

 

“From the captain. Please have some breakfast before you set out to work. And thanks for coming so quickly. We’re not used to this level of criminal activity here.” He moved away to let the BAU continue.

 

“He’s not understating at all,” Reid told them, “Cedar Rapids had a record high eight murders in six incidents, in 2014, the most recent statistics available. Before that, the last time they had more than three in an entire year was 2008 when there were a total of six murders. The population in the most recent census was 126,326, making Cedar Rapids the second largest city in the state behind the capital, Des Moines, which is about one hundred miles away. Those eight 2014 murders included one double murder suicide and one murder suicide, all inflicted by firearm and both those incidents were domestic in nature.”

 

Rossi ate as he listened intently to Reid’s words. He swiped his tablet and perused the case files; stopping at one photo and looking up at the others, “Those cases were cut and dry, solved and clean arrests made swiftly. This,” he paused to swipe to another photo and gestured, “is a spree. Three separate victims in what, six days? This is anger. Revenge. Something about these three obviously pissed this guy off.”

 

Reid packed up the paper files he’d been reading and pulled his cellphone from a pocket. He finished his sandwich and looked up when Rossi motioned to him, “Let’s go, kid.” 

 

Outside the conference room, JJ greeted the husband of the dead schoolteacher, the second victim, into an interview room as Lewis directed a disconsolate middle-aged woman into another room. 

 

Hotchner eyed them as he returned to the board he’d set up for the geographic profile. It occurred to him that this was Reid’s forte and perhaps he should have gone with Rossi to the M-E’s office instead of sending Reid. He dismissed that thought as quickly as it had come to him. It was simpler to coordinate the investigation from the police station. Reid could always assess the progress of the geographic profile when he returned from the medical examiner’s office. 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

Melissa stopped into the drug store on her way home from work and picked up a home pregnancy test and another box of Saltines before heading to the school to pick up Anna. She hoped Spencer would be home from Cedar Rapids by evening. She’d missed his call this morning while taking Anna to school and thought about calling him back but hated to interrupt him at work for anything less than an emergency. 

 

As soon as they arrived home, Melissa directed Anna to let Muttli out of his kennel and take him outside to relieve himself. She was pleased to note his kennel was clean; the house training was progressing nicely. He’d only messed his kennel once in the past four days now, after a string of thirteen days in a row of having accidents in the house. Melissa attributed his recent success to his growing trust and comfort in his new family and surroundings. When they were home, the kennel was left open for him to retreat to whenever he wanted, and Melissa and Anna had each found him in there sleeping on several occasions. She worried that it was too jail-like but he’d adjusted and accepted it as his safe place. He was overjoyed when his people came home though, and gave Anna’s face a thorough dog-kissing that the little girl relished.

 

“Mommy, why does Muttli have to be in a cage when we’re not home anyway?”

 

“Honey, it’s just until he’s old enough and has learned not to do his business in the house. Once he’s a little bigger, he’ll think of our whole house as his house too, and he won’t mess anywhere in it just like he’s learned not to mess in his kennel.” 

 

She set out a glass of milk and a pair of Arrowroot biscuits for Anna to snack on while she fed Muttli and set about making their own dinner, noting happily that she actually had an appetite for dinner and the thought of food wasn’t making her want to retch. Anna took her cookies and milk and headed into the living room to watch her favourite show. Melissa opened the refrigerator and pulled out the eggs. She wondered whether Spencer would be home in time for dinner and checked her iPhone. There were no new texts from Spence since the one from last night, and she noted ruefully that her reply to it was still sitting in the compose window. Damn it! She thought. She’d never sent it. Hurriedly, she cleared the window and rewrote another text, explaining and apologising and assuring him she loved him and wasn’t ignoring him intentionally. As soon as she put the phone down, it rang and she scooped it up instantly to answer it, not even reading the call display before putting it to her ear.

 

“Hi Sweetheart!” she began.

 

“Uh. Hello?” drawled a familiar male voice, “Not used to hearin’ anyone call me that, but hi, uh, Melissa?”

 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I thought you were Spence.”

 

“I’m almost disappointed ya didn’t mean that for me.” He tried hard not to laugh and failed.

 

Now, she laughed as she replied, “How you doing, Will? How are the boys?”

 

“We’re good. Good. Thanks. Sorry to rain on yer parade, but I have myself a bit of a problem here. JJ ain’t back yet, doesn’t look like they’re even gonna be back tonight. And, well, our sitter, she’s gone home to Boston for a long weekend. I thought JJ’d be here tonight. And—“

 

Part of Melissa was upset to hear that JJ—which also meant Spencer—wouldn’t be home tonight, but before Will could ask, Melissa interrupted,

 

“You need someone to watch the boys?”

 

“I do. And it’s more than that Melissa. I’m actually workin’ tonight. It’ll be an overnighter into tomorrow, I’m workin’ tomorrow night too.”

 

“Not a problem,” she assured him, “I have help. Anna and Muttli will be more than happy to have the boys over.

 

“You sure ‘bout that?”

 

“Absolutely.”

 

“All right, thank you then. You’re a lifesaver, ya know. Can’t tell ya how much I ‘preciate this. I will pack the boys up and bring ‘em over to you. And we’ll bring a pizza for the kids’ dinner.”

 

Melissa laughed as they ended their call. She put the eggs back into the refrigerator and instead took out milk for the children and sparkling water for herself. Anna came back into the kitchen and put her dirty dishes in the dishwasher. She picked Muttli’s water bowl up from the floor and set it on the counter then went to the tall cupboard by the doorway to retrieve the stepstool she needed to reach the sink. After refilling the pup’s water bowl, Anna set it down on the small mat that protected the floor from spills then put away her stepstool. She watched with interest as her mother set the table for four, putting out plates and napkins but no silverware. Anna was used to drinking from a glass like an adult and she furrowed her brow in question when she saw Melissa putting a sippy cup at one place.

 

“Anna?”

 

“What, Mommy?”

 

“Daddy isn’t going to be home for dinner tonight, he’s working late and he’s actually away too.”

 

Anna was disappointed but not concerned. She was happily still getting used to even having a daddy, so his occasional absence didn’t faze her. Melissa eyed her for a moment then asked,

 

“Aren’t you wondering why there’s four places for dinner?”

 

Anna nodded affirmatively.

 

“Henry and Michael are coming over with their daddy.”

 

Anna jumped up in excitement, “Can I give the baby his bottle?”

 

“You’ll have to ask Will but probably, Honey.” 

 

She clapped her hands together in happy anticipation. After a moment, her face grew serious and she asked,

 

“Mommy? Henry got a little brother like he wanted. Can I have a baby sister?”

 

Melissa held her breath for a moment and sat down in one of the kitchen chairs. She lifted Anna up onto her lap.

 

“You would like to have a little sister, Honey?”

 

Anna nodded. Melissa stroked her hair.

 

“How about a little brother? Would that be okay?”

 

“Well, I really want a sister to play with,” Anna started, curling her fingers around Melissa’s hand.

 

“But when it happens Sweetie, the parents can’t choose whether it’s a girl or a boy.”

 

“Mommy, I can give a bottle to a boy or a girl.” Anna thought for a moment. “I would like a sister and a brother!”

 

“Maybe some day, Sweet Pea. I think you would be a wonderful big sister.” She squeezed Anna’s hand. The doorbell rang. Melissa set her daughter back down on her feet and they hurried to the front door together.

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

Melissa opened the door and Henry raced in past her, looking for Anna and the two of them immediately made their way to Anna’s playroom. 

“Hi Will,” Melissa greeted Will LaMontagne, who kissed her cheek and handed Michael, and a bag of his bottles, over to her.

 

He set down the baby’s diaper bag and told her he’d be right back, then proceeded to make two trips back and forth from the car to bring Michael’s portable bed, high chair and stroller into the house. He set the high chair up in the kitchen and unfolded the stroller, leaving it in the front foyer. 

 

“Where would you like the baby’s bed, darlin’?” he called as Melissa returned from the kitchen where she’d gone to put away Michael’s bottles.

 

“I think in the spare bedroom, Will. He’ll be undisturbed in there. Second door on the left at the top of the stairs,” she directed as he started making his way upstairs toting the baby’s portable bed and the child’s baby monitor.

 

Michael was clutching at Melissa’s hair and it occurred to her that a ponytail was probably in order. She extracted his fingers from her hair and distracted him with peekaboo. Will came back downstairs and asked her if she wanted Michael’s playpen too.

 

“It’s in the car, no trouble,” he offered.

 

“All right, thanks. It’ll give him somewhere safe to play while I’m cooking or whatever. Since our house isn’t baby proofed.” Yet, she noted silently.

 

He returned with the playpen, which he set in a corner of the living room. It was visible from the kitchen counter and Melissa nodded her approval. 

 

“One more trip,” he said, as he went back out to his car and came back carrying two pizzas. Melissa called Anna and Henry to the table and Melissa moved the sippy cup from the table to the tray of the high chair. 

 

“Pizza!!” both Henry and Anna yelled approvingly and hurriedly took spots at the table. 

 

“Are you gonna eat with us, Will?” Melissa invited, indicating the spot set for him.

 

“Thank you but no, I can’t. I’m gonna be late for work as it is,” he lamented. Kissing both of his sons goodbye and thanking Melissa again, Will hurried out the door.

 

Melissa put a bit of formula into the sippy cup for Michael who was strapped into the high chair. He had already had his bottle, and Melissa wasn’t sure if JJ and Will would have approved of an eight month old having pizza crust so she handed him an Arrowroot biscuit, then she turned to the older children and served them their pizza.

 

She ate heartily herself and was relieved that the food agreed with her. After they’d finished pizza, she gave Anna and Henry each some ice cream. Michael was given applesauce while Melissa finished her meal with yogurt and banana. The two older children resumed their Lego construction in the playroom and Melissa took Michael upstairs for bath and bedtime. After he’d gone down for the night, Melissa made herself comfortable in the living room recliner and sent Spencer a text message detailing what they were up to this weekend.

 

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The team had reconvened at the police department to share their findings and check in with Garcia. As they’d suspected, the stab wounds to all three victims had occurred post mortem, and had increased in both number and intensity. Reid and Rossi chronicled the medical examiner’s report.

 

“The first victim,” Reid began, “high school guidance counselor Janet Tilsonberg. Shot to death at her desk in her office after school hours Monday afternoon, she was found by the cleaners later that evening. There were nine stab wounds inflicted by a weapon of opportunity, a pair of scissors from her desk.”

 

“The local police collected evidence, including a bloody footprint Forensics ran it, and we have a make and size, as you can see here,” Rossi contributed, pointing out the relevant photo in the case file. 

 

Lewis, Hotch and JJ all perused the relevant photos as Rossi continued. “The second victim, fifty five year old Barbara Watson. A general practitioner. Doctor Watson was shot to death in her office Thursday night. And also showed signs of being cut after death. The killer’s pretty disorganised, left a bloody footprint behind there too. Which matched the one found in Janet Tilsonberg’s office.” 

 

“Do we think it’s sexual?” JJ asked, “you know, given the ferocity of the stab wounds.”

 

Rossi and Reid exchanged a glance and then Reid replied, “I don’t think so. If the victims had continued to be female, then maybe yes but there was no sexual assault on the victims,” he explained, and continued, “And the other victim was a male. An older male. David Austin had twenty-two separate stab wounds, and his were mostly to the face and neck, it signifies rage. More like a personal vendetta.”

 

Rossi elaborated, “Austin was found in the back of his auto mechanics shop. And as it turns out, he was actually the first victim. Coroner put the time of death at sometime late Saturday or early Sunday. Before the teacher. Or the doctor. An employee coming in to work Monday morning found him. And the police weren’t sure it was related to the teacher killing at first, because of the gender—“

 

The chirp of his phone interrupted him, indicating Garcia was getting back to them with whatever information she’d uncovered.

 

“Go ahead Garcia,” Rossi invited.

 

“Well my lovelies, I have found nothing in Janet Tilsonberg’s history to indicate she has ever been anything but a wonderful supportive high school teacher and guidance counselor. Nothing but squeaky clean on her, kinda like if we did a history on our Dr. Reid. Not so much as a bounced cheque or overdue library book.”

 

Reid shook his head and JJ hid a smile. Hotchner was not as indulging and steered her back on course, “Garcia. The victims?”

 

“Yes. Sorry, Sir. The second victim, Doctor Barbara Watson. Was never married. Except perhaps to her career. She was a well-known and well-loved family physician, serving Cedar Rapids since 1993. She recently spent several years with Doctors Without Borders in North Africa before returning to Iowa.”

 

There was a knock at the conference room door and the same Cedar Rapids officer who’d brought the team breakfast that morning entered, this time with a message.

 

“Excuse me, Agent Hotchner? There’s a man out here that probably has some information about your case,” he indicated a young man wearing a mechanic’s uniform, the name ‘Eddie’ emblazoned on his chest below the Austin Motors logo. The man appeared nervous, continuously shifting his weight from one leg to the other and running his hands through his shoulder length dark hair.

 

Hotchner went to interview the newcomer while the others continued their conference with Garcia. 

 

“As for Austin Motors, the shop owned and operated by the now deceased David Austin, there’s no indication that he had any pending legal issues, angry customers, disgruntled employees, nothing like that,” Garcia informed.

 

“Okay, thanks Garcia. Keep digging, see if you can find something to connect the three victims,” Rossi told her before turning to face the others.

 

“Well he’s driven. He’s armed with a gun, comes into the scene ready to overpower anyone so he’s organised. But he uses a weapon of opportunity to carve up his victim after he’s already killed them. There’s no robbery. No sexual assault. Just a lot of anger.”

 

“At who?”

 

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	5. Chapter 5

The tower Anna and Henry were building was now taller than Anna and she could no longer reach to add Lego to its peak. She sat back contentedly to watch Henry continue the construction and laughed when the wet nose of Muttli pushed into her hands. Anna helped the puppy climb into her lap and after a few minutes of petting him was completely engrossed forgetting all about Lego and Henry. Anna and Muttli lavished love upon one another until suddenly Anna sensed they were being watched. She looked up to see Henry eyeing them intently, with the sheen of tears in his eyes.

 

“Henry, are you okay?” she asked.

 

He nodded, a little wistfully, and replied, “You’re so lucky, Anna. I wish my mom and dad would get us a dog. Muttli’s awesome.”

 

Anna buried her face in Muttli’s ruff and agreed, her ‘uh huh’ muffled in the dog’s fur. Muttli reveled in the attention; his tail thumped the floor happily. Anna patted a spot on the floor beside her. Henry accepted the invitation and dropped down next to her. Anna picked Muttli up and placed him in Henry’s lap, explaining that Muttli licking at Henry’s face was Muttli’s way of giving kisses. 

 

Melissa peeked at the little trio from around the corner and surreptitiously took a photo with her iPhone before making her way upstairs to check on Michael.

 

Henry laughed delightedly as Muttli bathed his face with his tongue. Anna giggled at the two of them, even as Muttli’s tail thumped against her face. After several minutes of blissful play, Muttli moved off Henry’s lap and did a quick circle. He chuffed and paced another circle and Anna recognised the sign right away and hastily got up. Henry followed as Anna made her way down the hallway to the back door.

 

“What’s up, Anna? Did I do—“ he stopped as she opened the French door.

 

“Come on, Muttli, hurry up,” she called unnecessarily as Muttli raced out the door ahead of her, finding a spot to relieve himself. She turned to Henry. 

 

“It’s okay. Muttli just needed to pee,” Anna explained. Henry nodded and watched as Muttli sniffed around a bush in the yard and started pawing at the ground.

 

“Uh oh,” Anna thought, and called the puppy back to the house. Henry looked questioningly at her and she explained, “There’s a bunny living under that bush and we don’t want Muttli to hurt her. Daddy thinks there might be a—“ she paused trying to recall the word Spencer had used and remembered it, “a rabbit warren under there. She might have babies. And Daddy doesn’t want Muttli or anybody else to hurt them.”

 

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“Garcia, I need a current address for a Ronald Markson. He’s in his twenties and up until last weekend, he worked for David Austin at Austin Motors as the vehicle detail attendant,” Hotchner instructed Garcia over the phone and then addressed the entire team, “I think he might be our unsub. I just spoke with Eddie Stevens, the other mechanic who worked at Austin Motors with the owner. He’s the one that found the boss dead Monday morning when he arrived at work. He’d called the other employees, both of whom had quickly arrived at the scene. The local police cleared them—the woman who does the bookkeeping and banking and the tow truck driver who operates out of their office--of any suspicion. Markson showed up later on the Monday. According to Eddie Stevens, David Austin had talked about firing Ronald Markson for repeatedly missing shifts without calling in and for being late when he did show up for work. But Eddie Stevens wasn’t sure if the firing had actually happened.”

 

“Got it. Sending it to your devices now,” Garcia informed, “I’m gonna dig into his background for you, I’ll send that ASAP.”

 

“Thanks Garcia,” Hotchner replied.

 

“Why wasn’t Markson questioned by the local cops about the Austin murder?” Rossi wanted to know.

 

“He was. He said he’d been away visiting his mother for the weekend in Davenport and didn’t come back to Cedar Rapids until Monday afternoon. And that alibi checked out. Davenport’s only a ninety-minute drive from here. But the address the cops had for Markson was the auto shop.”

 

  Hotchner mulled that over for a moment. “Dave, you and Lewis get backup from the local police and go get Markson.” 

 

Rossi checked his phone, noted the address Garcia had given him and tapped Lewis on the arm, “Let’s go.”

 

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“Okay you two, it’s after nine. I’ve let you stay up way too late tonight, off to bed now,” Melissa directed Henry and Anna up the stairs, shushing them as they passed the room in which baby Michael slept. 

 

After putting on his pajamas and brushing his teeth, Henry said good night to Anna, Melissa and Muttli then quietly slipped into the spare bedroom. He tiptoed past his sleeping younger brother and climbed into the bed, all without disturbing Michael.

 

In her own room, Anna asked Melissa the same question she asked almost every night, “Momma, can Muttli sleep with me tonight?”

 

Melissa smiled and shook her head, “No, Honey. Muttli has to sleep in his kennel still. Give him a hug goodnight.”

 

Anna bent down to hug and kisses Muttli, then got into her bed and threw her arms around her mother. 

 

“Night Mommy!” she exclaimed, before turning her face to the window and waving “Night Daddy out there.”

 

Melissa tucked her in and beckoned Muttli to follow her, and the two left, Melissa clicking off the light as she shut the door.

 

It had been a long day for Melissa. She’d worked all day, and ended up with two additional children that evening. The bout of nausea in the morning left her feeling quite drained and she made herself a cup of hot milk and sat in her favourite armchair to relax for a few minutes. Lifting him up into her lap, she gave Muttli some attention, sent JJ a text message and the photo of Muttli and Henry. Quickly, she texted Spencer a good night and I love you, then she put Muttli into his kennel and retired for the night herself.

 

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	6. Chapter 6

 

“The apartment was empty, Hotch. Looks like it’s been vacant for some time.”

 

Hotch frowned. “Did you find anything?”

 

“Not a thing. No clothing. No dishes. Food. Mail. Nada.”

 

“I got the impression the landlord had been through it and cleaned,” Tara Lewis speculated, and Rossi nodded in agreement.

 

Hotchner pursed his lips in acknowledgment. He looked behind him at the geographic profile map on which Reid was marking the most recent information. He put a large X through the spot that indicated the false lead from which they’d just returned. Finally, Reid turned around and asked,

 

“Do we have any intel on how Markson knew the teacher or the doctor? If he did.”

 

JJ was on her phone as Reid spoke and she replied “I think Garcia has some 4 1 1 for us. Penelope? I’m putting you on speaker.”

 

“Janet Tilsonberg was Ronald Markson’s guidance counselor in high school. He wasn’t a scholarly type, never scored well on tests and wasn’t intelligent. He had disciplinary problems and was suspended several times for truancy, defying his teachers, swearing, threatening a teacher, and pulling the fire alarm. A lot of little bad behaviors accelerating to vandalising lockers, underage drinking, and culminating in a big bad behavior- setting a washroom on fire and causing several students to end up in the hospital with smoke inhalation. She ended up having him arrested and he was expelled from the school. He developed a serious drinking problem. Whenever things went wrong, he turned to the bottle.”

 

“A regular good boy,” Rossi drawled.

 

“Doctor Barbara Watson was his family doctor. Such as his family was. Father was an abusive bastard, and his mother used to drink to deal with her pain. Ronald, it seems, hid this from most other grownups. When his court case came up about the fire, Doctor Watson testified about the home life and the judge removed him from the home as a result. Ronald ended up in juvie after he was convicted. And after his release from juvie, he, oh—“ Garcia’s tone softened, “He managed to finish high school at night school and started the first of several jobs he’s held over the years. He’s flipped burgers, he’s stocked grocery store shelves; he spent a couple of summers working as a landscaper. And he was also enrolled in an online college course for auto mechanics, while he worked part time at a number of different auto shops. He worked at Austin Motors for the past two years and only recently started the no shows and the lates that got him fired.”

 

“How recently, Garcia?”

 

“I’m just check—hmm, two months ago.”

 

“I wonder what straightened him out after juvie?” JJ mused. “I mean, obviously he was working towards making improvements.”

 

“And what triggered the relapse two months ago?” Hotch remarked. 

 

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The sound of baby crying woke Melissa up. She laughed, as she’d just been dreaming about a baby crying. Rolling over, she took a couple of Saltines from the package at her bedside and downed them before getting up out of bed and making her way to Michael’s bedroom. 

 

She marveled as she noted Henry apparently slept through his little brother’s crying. Melissa picked Michael up and he stopped crying immediately, snuggling into her shoulder. She grabbed his diaper bag and returned to her own bedroom to change him so Henry wouldn’t be disturbed. 

 

Happily, she noted there was no apparent bout of nausea this morning as she made her way downstairs with the baby to get his bottle.

 

After Michael was done, Melissa burped him and took him back upstairs. Henry stood at the top of the stairs and as Melissa ascended, they all heard Muttli whine from the back room. 

 

“Oh no,” Melissa grumbled. 

 

“Can I help?” Henry asked.

 

“Aw, thank you Henry. Do you think you could run down and let Muttli out into the backyard?”

 

He nodded affirmatively and took the stairs two at a time. Melissa smiled as he disappeared down the hall. 

 

“Okay, little man, you are going to have to cooperate with me here,” she told Michael as she set him on a clean towel on the floor in the bathroom and handed him one of his toys. She pulled the pregnancy test she’d bought at the pharmacy yesterday out of a drawer and closed the bathroom door.

 

Five minutes later, she had her answer and carefully put the stick back into the packaging and slipped it back into the drawer. She picked Michael up, made her way back into the master bedroom and twirled him around happily.

 

“Mommy?” Anna stood at the door behind her. 

 

“Let’s go down for breakfast, and then we are all going to go to the Park. We’ll take a picnic with us,” Melissa announced.

 

Henry and Muttli returned from the backyard as Anna was setting the table in the kitchen. Melissa made scrambled eggs for them all. Michael sat in his high chair with his sippy cup. As the older children ate their eggs, Melissa fed Michael some strained peaches and ate her own breakfast. Afterwards, Michael was put in the safety of the playpen while Melissa made sandwiches for their picnic. Anna and Henry rounded up the sand toys and sunscreen, and a Frisbee for Muttli. Melissa put two of Michael’s bottles into the small cooler, and added the sandwiches. She ensured Michael’s diaper bag was stocked with everything he’d need and then moved the baby from the playpen to the stroller. Henry put the cooler into the storage compartment under the stroller. Melissa added several plastic bottles of water and the collapsible dog bowl. They leashed Muttli and then the little group was off to the park for the day.

 

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	7. Chapter 7

David Rossi opened the conference room door and was initially greeted enthusiastically by Jennifer Jareau and Spencer Reid. 

 

“Good morning to you, too,” he smiled as he took a seat at the table and watched as their faces fell.

 

“You,” Reid paused, “you didn’t bring coffee?”

 

Rossi fixed a stare at him before replying. “I did it yesterday. It’s someone else’s turn,” he said with a dismissive shrug. Reid dropped his gaze to the floor and sighed unhappily and Jareau opened her mouth to speak but was forestalled by the arrival of Tara Lewis, the most recent addition to the BAU. With an exaggerated flourish, she set an enormous cup of coffee in front of Reid and ruffled his hair. Lewis held out the carry out tray, which bore four regular sized coffees out to Jareau and sat down at the table. Rossi laughed as each took a coffee. Hotchner entered the room, cell phone to his ear.

 

He nodded a greeting to the team members and reached into the center of the table to tap a button on the phone. “Okay, Garcia, you’re on speaker on the main line.”

 

“While my babies were all getting their beauty sleep in Iowa, I dug and delved and dredged and came up with some interesting info about our Ronald Markson. While he was in juvie, he made friends with another troubled boy. A kid named Jacob Sanderson. I had to unseal a couple of records to get this information. Jacob Sanderson had a very similar background to Markson’s. Also liked to overindulge in the liquid libation. Neither one was a Boy Scout if you catch my drift. BUT—“

 

“Garcia?” Hotchner steered her back to the facts with his tone of voice.

 

“Yes. Jacob Sanderson and Ronald Markson became BFFs in juvie. Jacob’s cousin Liz came to visit him regularly. She was a good influence on him and it rubbed off on Ronald. Both boys finished their high school equivalency, and enrolled in post secondary correspondence courses with her encouragement. The last few months he was in juvie, Ronald was a model citizen, even mentoring newcomers. But he was still drinking. Eventually, Liz and Ronald became a couple. When he was released from juvie, they moved in together and everything went well for a couple of years. He supported her while she studied early childhood education at college, and when she graduated, she started her own home daycare business.”

 

“And?” Hotchner could tell by the way she spoke Garcia had more information.

 

“Three months ago it all went south.” She paused for dramatic effect and Hotchner fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Liz Sanderson had a baby. And how is this bad, you ask. I will tell you. Her cousin was killed in a car accident the day after his release from jail. Jail you say? Yes, Jacob Sanderson left juvie six months after Ronald Markson did, but the two never saw each other again. You see Jacob went to visit Liz after his release. Ronald was at work at the time and wasn’t aware of this meeting. Jacob’s abusive father wouldn’t let Jacob live at home after his release. Said he’d brought shame to the family. They argued. It escalated. Liz had gone with him for moral support and tried to arbitrate and Jacob’s father starting hitting her too. Jacob would have none of that and intervened. There was a bad fight. Liz and Jacob left. Eventually, Jacob ended up in prison for aggravated assault. He was released three months ago.”

 

“And killed in a car accident the next day,” Hotchner recalled.

 

“Liz Sanderson’s baby was born a few days later. Now, she’d broken up with Markson several times in the last year over the sauce. He’d try to get back with her and she’d give him another chance. And then things would go bad and she’d leave again. Well, the day Jacob was released, Liz moved back home to her mother’s house. She’d had it with Markson’s drinking and possessiveness. And he’d accused her of sleeping around.”

 

“She’s going to be his next target!” Reid theorised.

 

“Her address, Garcia?” Hotchner prompted, as the team members all rose and prepared to take action. Rossi called the Cedar Rapids Police Captain on the internal line and requested an immediate backup. The team readied their weapons and donned their bulletproof vests and headed out to their vehicle. As soon as Hotch got it from Garcia, he sent the address to the others via text. 

 

Rossi drove the lead car, racing to the address when JJ read it out to him. A Cedar Rapids Police cruiser followed them. The ride seemed interminable but in just a few minutes, Rossi screeched the SUV to a stop in the driveway of a small two-level semi-detached house with a fenced in front yard. Children’s toys were scattered in the yard, a covered sandbox sat in the center. An older model light blue Toyota sedan sat on the street in front of the house. 

 

Rossi directed the local police and Lewis to take up positions beside him. He sent Reid and Jareau to cover the back of the house. Rossi gave the customary warning “FBI, Open up” and waited for a few seconds. Getting no response, he indicated to the first local cop to kick the door in. As he and Lewis entered the house, they split apart going left and right. The two Cedar Springs officers went up the stairs to check the upper floor.

 

“Clear,” sounded twice from upstairs. Rossi moved carefully around the lower level, through the empty kitchen and the dining room. 

 

“Clear,” he called. He looked to the left, waiting for Lewis to reply.

 

Lewis moved through the living room, carefully checking around the oversize sofa and then into the room behind it. Full of toys, and child-sized furniture, she surmised this to be the daycare room. It proved to be empty as well and she walked back through it and called out, 

 

“Clear here too, Dave.” From the kitchen, Rossi was relieved to hear Lewis’ voice at the same time wondering where Liz Sanderson was. Lewis joined him in the kitchen and they made their way back to the front door.

 

The two Cedar Rapids officers came back downstairs and reported to Rossi.

 

“Baby’s sleeping in its crib upstairs.”

 

Lewis’ eyes widened in surprise and she looked to Rossi,

 

“Then the mom’s gotta be around here somewhere. She wouldn’t be leaving the baby unattended, Dave.”

 

He agreed with her and they decided, since the house was clear their next course of action would be to search the yard. Rossi directed the locals to check the back yard. The sound of gunshot followed quickly by tires squealing sent them running back through the house to the sliding glass door at the side of the house. 

 

“Spence!”  Rossi and Lewis heard JJ cry out in an anguished voice.

 


	8. Chapter 8

“Federal agent down!” Lewis called into her wire as she wrenched open the door. As she ran across the deck and down the two steps to kneel by the stricken team member, she called for medical assistance.

 

Rossi watched in anger as he raced around to the front of the house just in time to see the Toyota pull away in a westerly direction. He updated Hotch on his wire as he ran back to where he’d left Lewis. Hearing the commotion, the two local officers ran to their cruiser to pursue the Toyota, advising their superiors they were engaged as they left.

 

“I’m pursuing,” Rossi called out to Lewis. The sound of sirens could be heard: both the departing police cruiser and the arriving ambulance, attendants pulling into the driveway immediately after Rossi had pulled out in the FBI SUV.

 

“Absolutely,” Lewis called back to him. She was busy helping JJ sit up. Jareau’s gun had fallen several feet away from her as she went down and Lewis carefully handed it back to her. Reid’s gun lay on the ground a few feet away and Lewis quickly retrieved it. JJ shook the grogginess from her mind and as realisation set in, hastily tried to explain what had happened.

 

“I’m okay, he shot me here,” she panted, pointing to a spot under the F on her Kevlar. “I think he had Liz. When I came around the corner, he just shot me and I fell. Spence came running to see if I was okay of course. I blacked out. It all happened so fast. He must’ve grabbed Spence at gunpoint. We gotta find him Lewis!”

 

“We will. We need to get you to a hospital.”

 

“I’m okay,” JJ protested as the ambulance attendants arrived with their gear and set about treating and transporting her.

 

“It’s not optional, JJ.”

 

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Henry and Anna took Muttli for a walk while Michael sat in a baby swing and Melissa gently pushed him back and forth. About a hundred feet away from the playground area was a stand of trees by the bank of a small creek that ran through the back of the park. Muttli sniffed around the base of each tree, peed on each one and wanted very much to make friends with the small squirrel he came across. Henry held the leash tightly to foil Muttli’s advance. He allowed the pup to step into the creek to splash about and get himself a drink of water then the threesome made their way back to the playground.

 

Melissa spread the picnic blanket under a tree and had the older children sit down. She settled Michael into Anna’s arms, then handed her Michael’s bottle. 

 

“You didn’t get a chance to feed him last night or this morning so I thought maybe you’d like to now.”

 

Anna nodded and devoted her attention to giving Michael his bottle. Melissa handed Henry the collapsible water bowl and asked him to put out water for Muttli. Once he’d completed that job, Melissa handed Henry one of Muttli’s treats to give the dog. Happily, Henry did so and after Muttli had eaten the treat, he poked his muzzle into Henry’s side until Henry petted him.

 

After Michael’s bottle was done, Melissa burped him then sat him on the blanket and gave him one of his teething biscuits. Anna and Henry ate their sandwiches and shared a container of cut up fruit. They drank water and had cookies and then helped Melissa clean everything up. She reapplied sunscreen to the older children, and tied Michael’s sunhat back in place, much to Michael’s dismay. 

 

Anna and Henry played in the sand, building a castle and a road for the Tonka trucks to drive along. Michael contributed his small plastic car and the older children tolerated his unintentional destruction of their castle. Melissa let Muttli off his leash and tossed the Frisbee for him to chase after and retrieve. He brought it back enthusiastically the first time, not quite so enthusiastically the second time and not at all the third time. Melissa laughed and tried cajoling him.

 

“Come on, Muttli, go get it! Get it!” The dog gave her a look, yawned and toddled back to the children to lie down.

 

“That’s right, you’re a Rottie, not a Retriever. Hopeless case,” she laughed, snapping the leash back on his collar.

 

“I’ll get it,” Henry offered, getting up from the sand and running to the abandoned Frisbee. He placed in under the stroller and returned to the second version of their sand castle. After about half an hour, Michael tired and Melissa laid him down in his stroller, rocking it back and forth until he fell asleep. The older children continued to play in the sand for a short time then headed over to the climbing apparatus where they spent another half hour or so burning off energy before they determined they were tired and done with the park. Melissa gave them each a water bottle then they started for home. 

 

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The first thing he became aware of as he regained consciousness was how cold he felt. Reid shivered and groaned, rolled over onto his side and groggily tried to sit up. It was a difficult undertaking, given that his hands were bound together in front of him with a plastic cable tie but after repeated attempts he managed it. He brought his bound hands up to his face to move his hair out of his eyes and winced as he made contact with his temple. Moving his hands back down, he was dismayed to find blood on them. He gasped when he remembered what had happened. 

 

“JJ,” he said aloud in a concerned tone. Recollection of what had happened flooded his mind. He’d heard gunshot, raced to see if JJ was all right and as he rounded the corner of the house—gun drawn but ambushed nonetheless—a sharp pain had darkened his consciousness. And the next thing he remembered was waking up here just now. Shaking off the cobwebs, he focused and looked around, taking in his surroundings.

 

He was sitting on a dirty concrete floor; a drain clogged with blackish muck was situated in the very centre of the room. Cinder block walls surrounded him on three sides. There was a steel door in one of them. Above him in the ceiling was a bank of fluorescent lights, currently shut off. At the front of the room was a glass door that would slide up under the ceiling when open, the glass completely obscured by dust and grease. He recognised it as a vehicle service bay though there were no signs that the building had been in recent use. Hanging from a long hook in the centre of the room was a mechanic’s trouble light, plugged into a long extension cord that disappeared under the bay door. There were no vehicles, car parts or other tools visible. The room was bare, save for a small stepstool in the far back corner next to an oversize double sink; and the unconscious woman lying about ten feet away from him.

 


	9. Chapter 9

Reid struggled against the bonds on his wrists for several moments before abandoning that strategy, at least temporarily. He planted his feet and dragged himself across the floor on his butt until he reached the woman, and positioned himself so that he could check for a pulse. Finding one, he was relieved to realise the woman was alive, and patted her cheek several times in an effort to bring her around. She was bound similarly to him, but had also been gagged. He pulled the cloth from her mouth. She stirred briefly then awoke with a start and fearfully shrank back from him.

 

He sat quietly as she fully regained consciousness and became aware of her surroundings. She looked him up and down and when they made eye contact, he managed to force a slight smile on his face in an attempt to make her less apprehensive. He motioned to the FBI on his Kevlar and she nodded and smiled slightly in return.

 

“I’m Doctor Spencer Reid, I’m an agent with the FBI.”

 

“Liz Sanderson,” she introduced herself calmly and then concern set in. “My baby! What’s gonna happen to my baby?” Her eyes filled with tears and she winced as the pain from the previous blow to the side of her head flared and then subsided.

 

Reid thought quickly. “Was your baby in the house, Ms. Sanderson?”

 

She nodded and took a deep breath to calm herself. “Liz. Please. And I left her in her crib. Becky was sleeping.”

 

Reid acknowledged this and reassured her, “My team will find her. They’ll call a relative or take her into Child Services; she’s safe, don’t worry.”

 

  “I heard a knock on the door,” she recalled the events. “I shut Becky’s door and went downstairs. He was waiting for me. He held the gun to my back and forced me out the back door. He must’ve knocked me out; I don’t remember anything after that.”

 

“He?”

 

“Ronald Markson. My ex boyfriend.”

 

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“I’m okay!” JJ insisted, waving off the concern of her teammates. “It’s just gonna be a bruise.” She’d received medical attention and returned to the police station and now slid off the desk on which she’d been perched and continued, “Have they found Spence yet?”

 

Hotch and Lewis stood beside her, Lewis patting her arm reassuringly.

 

“We don’t—“ Hotch began but was interrupted by the arrival of a frustrated David Rossi, who burst into the room.

 

“I lost them. We all lost them,” he said in a disgusted tone. “The local guys followed for a few miles then got stuck in a construction zone. I didn’t even get that far,” he remarked angrily. 

 

“Dave, don’t beat yourself up over it, we’ll find him,” Hotchner recognised Rossi’s upset was more about their missing colleague than the fugitive suspect. Rossi made a face that registered his consternation and Hotch clapped his shoulder.

 

“The local police are all over it, there’s an APB out on the Toyota, and descriptions of Markson, Sanderson and Reid have been distributed. They’ll be found.”

 

“Where’s the child?” Rossi wanted to know.

 

“Becky Sanderson’s maternal grandmother was called, she came to the house and we had both of them taken into Protective Custody as a precaution. They’re at a safe house with a security detail. Markson will not find them,” Lewis spoke up.

 

Rossi was somewhat mollified by this and took up his first concern again. “What about Reid?”

 

JJ nodded. Hotch furrowed his brow and repeated, “We’ll find him guys, I know it. Reid himself will find a way to let us know where he is if he can’t get away. He’s clever. We should concentrate on profiling Ronald Markson. If we find him, we’ll find Reid.”

 

“Agent Hotchner? Excuse me for interrupting,” the Cedar Rapids liaison opened the conference room door. “We found the Toyota. It’s been abandoned, about two miles west of here off route 151.”

 

“How far away from Liz Sanderson’s house is that?” Lewis inquired.

 

“Less than a mile,” the local officer replied. “Looks like he was doubling back, car was on the shoulder of the east bound lanes.” He handed Hotchner an item and told him it had been found in the Toyota.

 

Rossi exchanged a look with Hotchner. “Forensic countermeasure. He’s probably got new wheels.”

 

Hotchner held up the length of coiled cable the officer had given him and frowned, “Reid’s wire. Dammit.”

 

The local officer left them and Lewis asked the question they’d all been avoiding.

 

“Why didn’t he kill Liz Sanderson when he had the chance?”

 

“Because we arrived on the scene and interrupted him,” Rossi declared.

 

“But why would he take Spence?” JJ fretted.

 

“My best guess is leverage,” Hotchner opined. “As long as he has Reid, he may believe he’s got a bargaining chip to let him get away.”

 

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	10. Chapter 10

Reid moved his wrists up to his mouth and tried biting the plastic tie that bound his hands. While he made a little bit of progress it would take hours to free himself in this manner. He tried poking the prong of his belt into the plastic to no effect. He made his way over to the hanging light using the same butt drag method he’d used to initially get to Liz and realised there was no way he’d be able to utilise the hook it hung from to free himself. As tall as he was, the hook was still too far out of his reach. He looked across the room and the stepstool caught his eye. Thinking that through, he decided against wasting his energy going to get the stool. Even if he could find a way to position it under the hook of the swinging light, he’d never be able to climb up on it with his feet bound together. The light, which was the only illumination they had at the moment, swung gently to and fro because Reid had nudged the power cord as he returned to Liz’s side. She tried tearing at the ties on his hand without success. He attempted the same with hers to no avail. Finally, he suggested she check his pockets for anything useful. She managed to fish a couple of pens out of one of his pockets and his keys. Awkwardly, after several attempts to wrangle the keys, she was able to maneuver them so that one was wedged between her thumb and forefinger and she tried unsuccessfully to saw through the tie. Frustrated, she fought back tears as he told her in a whisper to check his other pocket.

 

They could hear the crash of thunder outside, rain pelting against the steel and glass of the service bay door. Flashes of lightning lit up the room intermittently. 

 

She extracted his iPhone from his pocket and their eyes met in astonishment. She chuckled quietly despite the gravity of their situation. He was surprised that Markson hadn’t confiscated the phone in the same way he had done away with Reid’s FBI wire. Liz jockeyed the phone around until she could hold it up in front of his hands. Reid touched the password into the keypad and it flickered on. He swiped through the rows of applications until he found the one he was looking for and tapped it on.  He opened the compass and maps apps to learn their location. It blipped for a moment, then winked off.

 

“Dammit. There’s no cell service.” Undeterred by this setback, he lifted his eyes to meet her questioning gaze.

 

“We have no idea where he is. When or even if he’s coming back. I’ve set the find app on. If he comes back, he may move us. Maybe to somewhere there is cell service. The app will notify my team of our exact location. And if--” he was interrupted by the sound of the bay door opening and hurriedly, Liz dropped the phone back into Reid’s pocket.

 

Ronald Markson approached his prisoners menacingly. He was soaking wet from the pouring rain. He had a fast food bag in one hand; his gun in the other and an angry look on his face.

 

“What have you guys been plotting?” his eyes narrowed with the accusation.

 

“We haven’t been plotting anything, Ronnie,” Liz tried to placate him. “Please, let us go.” 

 

Markson laughed derisively as he retrieved the stepstool from the back of the shop floor and sat down near Liz and Reid, deliberately eating his meal in front of them. If he was aiming to wear Reid down with food deprivation, it wouldn’t work, but Spencer wasn’t about to let Markson know that.  Markson finished the take out Thai and tossed the empty Styrofoam container on the floor. Guzzling down the large size soda, he carelessly dropped the empty cup too. 

 

“Please Ronnie. Becky needs me.”

 

He glared at her. “What Becky needs? What Becky needs?” he practically spit out at her. “What about what I need, Liz?”

 

“I’m sorry, Ronnie.”

 

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“We’ve been at this since early this morning, I think we should all go to our hotel and get some sleep,” Hotchner directed as he eyed his tired unit members sitting at the conference table. Each was deep in thought or engrossed in a tablet. Outside, rain pelted down and intermittent flashes of lightning and loud claps of thunder accompanied the downpour.

 

JJ shook her head, “I can’t. I can’t, Hotch, not until we find Spence.”

 

“We need to find Reid,” Rossi argued, agreeing with Jareau.

 

“I appreciate the dedication here, guys but the simple truth is we aren’t functioning at optimum—“ Hotch paused as the news on the television beside him caught his attention.

 

“And the suspect is believed to have kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and an FBI agent,” came the clipped voice of the television news reporter. The image beside the reporter of the Sanderson house winked away and an image of Liz Sanderson came up, followed by another of the FBI logo.

 

Hotchner let out a sigh and angrily clicked on his cell phone, barking into it as soon as the connection was made, “I expressly asked that the media not release any information about an agent being kidnapped!”

 

Behind Hotch, JJ quickly pulled out her own cell phone as she looked to Rossi and Lewis and explained, “I gotta call Will, let him know I’m okay. And to keep Melissa the hell away from television news. This is not how she should be finding out about Spence!”

 

Before she could enter the speed dial number for home, her phone rang. It was Will’s cell and she answered immediately.

 

“I’m okay, Will, it’s not me. It’s Spence,” she cried.

 

Will’s reply was a few angry expletives after which he calmed himself and asked, “I’m at work right now, hon. But do ya want me to go by the Reid house and let Melissa know before she sees it on the television?”

 

“Oh, Will. Yes. No. I don’t know, just a minute, lemme ask Hotch.” She waited as Hotchner disconnected his angry call. “Hotch, I have Will on the phone. We wondered whether you want him to go see Melissa?”

 

“Let me speak to him please?” Hotchner reached for JJ’s phone and the two men spoke for several minutes. Rossi and Lewis waited anxiously for their boss to finish speaking to Will LaMontagne. 

 

Rossi’s phone chirped and he answered it, noting aloud to the others as he waved the phone around, “Garcia.”

 

“What’s up Garcia?” Rossi asked her.

 

“The strangest thing, my friends. Reid’s phone.”

 


	11. Chapter 11

Hotch stopped midsentence, “Wait, what? Hang on Will.” He put JJ’s husband on speaker phone and said aloud “What about Reid’s phone, Garcia?”

 

“Well, recently, I made Boy Genius upgrade from that clunky old cell phone he had. I mentioned he’d be able to FaceTime with Melissa and Anna when he was away and—“

 

“Garcia, get to the point please,” Hotchner said impatiently.

 

“Well the iPhone he got has an app on it called FindMyFriends, Sir. I taught him that this was a way to locate anyone with an iPhone and that app. Anyone who he’d entered in the app. Like Melissa. Or one of us. The thing is, I have that app on my iPhone as well. And I have the good doctor entered on my app. Anyway, Sir. A few minutes ago, the FMF app on my phone chirped and indicated that our 187 had FMF on, just for a moment before it went out. Is there a thunderstorm where you are by any chance?”

 

“Yes, there sure is,” he told her.

 

“So, here’s the thing, Bossman. I think maybe this Ronald Markson took Reid’s phone from him. And he doesn’t realise that the FMF tracking is on. But the thunderstorm is interfering with cell service. I got a ping off several cell towers in the Cedar Rapids area. And I triangulated them. But the connection wasn’t long enough for the FMF app to pinpoint his phone. I can give you an approximate, and what would be my best guess as to where it is, so you can find Markson.”

 

“Or Reid, or both,” Hotchner exclaimed.

 

“I’m sending the map I charted to your devices.”

 

“Well done, Garcia, thank you.” Hotchner told her.

 

“There’s more,” she continued. “I went through Markson’s past. You guys said that his address was bogus. He has no credit card or anything like that, which would require a bill being sent to him monthly. But, he does have a debit card. And that card was most frequently used at a bank machine right by the Austin Motors shop. Which he hasn’t used since the day we think he got fired. But since he was studying auto mechanics before then, I decided to check out other auto shops in Cedar Rapids, more specifically the two other ones he worked at before he went to Austin Motors. And Google Earth is my friend. Because one of them is way over on the east side of town, but the first one, Sir. The first shop he worked at is smack in the middle of the triangulated zone. And. It’s been closed down for over a year.”

 

“Garcia, you’re the best!” JJ interjected. Hotchner called the local liaison back into the conference room and requested SWAT backup again. Eager to make up for the media gaffe earlier, the man immediately assembled a team and gave them direction to obey the FBI. For the second time that day, the team hurriedly assembled to go to action.

 

Hotch took Rossi aside, “You’re gonna hafta handle this one, Dave, I have Will on the way to Melissa and I’m going to tell her myself once he gets there. I don’t want her hearing this on the news. Hopefully, we’ll have Reid back by the time I’m talking to her.”

 

“We’ll get him, Aaron. The unsub. And Reid,” Rossi promised as he left to lead the team.

 

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“Where are we, Ronnie?” Liz asked him.

 

“Right where I want you. Or did, I should say.”

 

“Why did you kill those other people, Ronald?” Reid asked him. “The teacher, the doctor.”

 

“They ruined my life! Old lady Tilsonberg got me kicked out of school. And the doctor bitch was the one that got me sent to juvie.” He glared at Reid, not liking having his emotions exposed like this.

 

“But you met Jacob through that experience,” Reid reminded him. “He was your best friend. You were both putting your lives back together in a good way.”

 

Markson paced around the service bay. He waved the gun in the air and mumbled unintelligibly for a long moment, then turned back to his prisoners. Fixing Liz with a stare, his tone changed from angry to distraught,

 

“I love you. I did, I mean. And,” he paused, and wiped at his face as though to wipe away tears, inexplicably using his gun-wielding hand. He glared at her, then addressed Reid,

 

“Do you have any idea how it feels to love someone?”

 

Reid thought of Melissa but bit back any sort of response.

 

“I loved you!” he yelled at Liz. “And we had a baby.” He snorted then corrected himself, “You had a baby. Someone else’s baby!” He stepped towards her and slugged her with the gun, knocking her unconscious. 

 

Still seated on the concrete floor, Reid moved forward to protest, “Don’t hurt her!” wincing empathetically as Markson pistol-whipped her.

 

“Don’t hurt her? Don’t. Hurt. Her?” He wheeled around and glared at Reid, “Do you have any idea what it feels like to love a woman who had someone else’s baby!?”

 

Yes, thought Reid. Yes, he did know, but there was no way he was sharing that with Ronald freaking Markson. And their situations were entirely different. “No, I don’t,” he lied, breaking eye contact with the suspect and glancing instead at the unconscious woman behind him.

 

Markson advanced on Reid, dragging him to his feet. He forced Reid out the door and into the front seat of the stolen old Ford Taurus he’d left parked there. Satisfied that Reid was securely stashed, he returned to the bay.

 

Reid moved quickly. Turning himself around, he opened the glove box of the car, rifling through it and hoping to find something to loosen his bonds. Finding nothing in the glove box, he turned to check beside and around him and again came up empty. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he realised with dismay that it was probably a good night text from Melissa and for the second night in a row, he would be unable to at least reply to her. But there’s cell reception! He realised. He managed to extricate his phone from his pocket after several moments of twisting and wrangling. He held the phone awkwardly in one hand, pressing its back against his leg to hold it in place. Pushing the home button, the screen winked on and he saw the notifications of several missed texts and calls, sighed regrettably and swiped through to the phone application. Quickly he punched in Garcia’s speed dial and as he did so, he heard laboured grunting and looked out the window. Markson was dragging Liz out of the bay. Reid swiftly dropped the phone by his feet and managed to kick it under the seat with his bound feet just as Markson wrenched open the rear door and unceremoniously dumped Liz Sanderson on the back seat. Then he got into the driver’s seat, started the car and drove away.

 

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	12. Chapter 12

“Okay, I’m just pullin’ up to the house now, Hotch,” Will spoke into the microphone on his Bluetooth earpiece.

“Thank you. Put me on speaker when she opens the door,” Hotch directed.

“The house is dark, I think they might already all be in bed,” Will told him. “Maybe we don’t have to oh, crap--” he interrupted himself as he approached the front door on foot and saw the light on in the back, which he knew to be the living room. Melissa was probably curled up in the armchair she loved so much. Will knocked lightly on the front door, and called out her name.

Melissa opened the door cautiously, relief flooding her face momentarily as she recognised Will and then almost instantaneously that relief changed to apprehension.

“Will?” Her eyes grew wide but she dared not ask aloud the question racing through her mind.

Will drew her into his arms immediately. “Hotch?” Will prompted, as he led Melissa back into the house, steering her into the living room. He clicked his phone to change the setting from Bluetooth to speaker. “All right, Hotch, go ahead.”

“Melissa,” Hotch started in the most empathetic tone of voice he could muster. “I’m sorry. We didn’t want you tell you about this at all, until it was resolved, but we didn’t want you to hear about this on the television news. Reid is missing. He’s been kidnapped by our suspect. I need you to know--”

The rest of Hotch’s words were lost on Melissa as she sank onto the sofa. Will sat down next to her and enveloped her in his arms again as she broke down, softly crying. He stroked her hair and spoke in a quiet undertone,

“Shh, shhhh, Melissa. Shhh, he’ll be all right. Listen to Hotch.” 

“Melissa?”

She sniffled, wiped her eyes with her sleeve and took a deep breath, resolving to be strong.

“It’s okay, go ahead Hotch,” Will directed.

“Melissa. Please trust us. And trust Spencer. He’s resourceful; he’s smarter than any of us. He will find a way out of this. Or to help us find him. The suspect isn’t smart. And he won’t kill Reid, he’ll want him as a hostage.” 

Will cupped her chin and made her face him. “You of all people know he’s been through worse, darlin’. You know he’s gonna be all right,” he told her.

She nodded her head, holding onto Will’s arm and still sniffling. 

“Hated to even hafta tell ya this, but we just didn’t want you seein’ it on TV. Stupid reporters. I’m so sorry, Doll.”

Melissa nodded again. 

“Are you all right, Melissa? I promise you, we will let you know as soon as we know anything. I’ll have Reid call you himself as soon as we have him back,” Hotch assured her. “Will?”

“Aw, hell, Hotch. I’m callin’ in. I’m gonna stay here with her tonight. Y’all get back to findin’ Spencer. Tell JJ I love her and find Melissa’s man safe and sound, okay?”

“Melissa?” Hotch asked again.

“You’re there, Agent Hotchner. Please help them find Spencer,” Melissa entreated. “I’ll be all right as long as I know you guys are actively looking for him,” sounding far more stoic than she felt.

“If you need anything—“ Hotch began only to have Will finish his sentence

“I will be right here with ya,” Will promised. He was already calling into dispatch to explain where he was and why.

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Rossi came back out of the abandoned service bay with Reid’s keys and a half empty bag of cable ties in one hand and clicked open his cell phone with the other.

“Yeah, Hotch, the local L-E is bringing in an evidence team to catalogue what we found. Fast food wrappers inside. A woman’s shoe, drag marks and footprints in the mud out here. I found Reid’s keys on the floor in the bay, and two separate spots of what looks like blood. Not a lot though. They were definitely here. Tire prints look like they drove out of here, headed west.”

“I’ll have local P-D set up roadblocks on route 151,” Hotch told him, “We had to let Melissa know, Dave. I didn’t want her seeing it on the news first.”

“Yeah, that was the right call, Aaron. Markson didn’t kill them. He won’t. He needs his hostages alive. And Reid is just too smart to die.”

“Keep me posted,” Hotchner ended the call to Rossi and made the call to get roadblocks set up.

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	13. Chapter 13

Markson drove just below the speed limit so he wouldn’t attract attention. Smart move, Reid noted silently and wondered just how accurate their earlier assessment about Markson’s intelligence level had been. They’d only gone about five or six miles when Markson turned north off the highway onto a secondary road. The ride was much bumpier. Reid observed him surreptitiously, he was certain Markson had a specific destination in mind and soon enough, they came upon what appeared to be a grouping of mostly derelict farm buildings. He pulled the car up behind the remains of an old barn and parked. Reid hoped he’d take Liz first but Markson opened the front passenger door and wordlessly hauled Reid out of the car. The sudden additional weight shifted Markson’s centre of gravity, he lost his balance and both men fell to the ground. Reid, still oozing blood from a previous blow to the head, hit his head on the ground as he fell. Even reeling in pain, he seized the opportunity to feign unconsciousness and immediately did so. Markson rose to his knees and thinking Reid was knocked out, left him to take Liz instead. He wrenched open the rear door, picked Liz up and slowly made his way to the main house. 

 

Reid opened his eyes to watch as Markson disappeared into the house. He was still a little groggy, but reached into the open car door and felt under the seat for his phone. It was difficult work with bound hands but after a minute or so, he managed it. The screen had darkened due to inactivity but he was heartened to see the phone was still receiving cell service. Even more surprising, the call to Garcia was still engaged. She was monitoring him, he realised. 

 

“Garcia,” he whispered, “He’s gonna be coming back so I can’t talk long, I turned that Friends thing on, the team should be able to track us. If you can hear me, please let Hotch and everybody know I’m okay. And tell Melissa I love her.” 

 

He didn’t want to risk being caught so he muted the device and quickly replaced it back under the seat, leaving the call to Garcia connected. Reassuming the unconscious position, he heard the approaching footsteps of Markson and gave the appearance of just regaining his senses from the fall. 

 

“Get up,” Markson barked at him. Reid rose but stumbled and fell because his feet were still bound and as he fell, he tripped Markson again, which triggered an angry outburst of swearing by the suspect. Holding the gun to Reid’s head with one hand he warned, “Don’t try anything!” and took a knife from his pocket.

 

He bent down towards Reid’s feet and cut the tie binding them together then swiftly put the knife back in his pocket and grabbed Reid by the front of his shirt, tearing it open inadvertently as he did so.

 

“Now. Get up!” Reid complied. Markson shoved him, “This way” he growled, directing Reid towards the house with a shove. It was quite dark, their way illuminated by a flashlight Markson held in one hand, but Reid did his best to memorise the scene: decrepit barn to his right, the car parked behind it. He was walking along an uneven and aged flagstone pathway with several broken stones. The farmhouse was across the walkway from the barn. It was dilapidated too, but not as seriously as the barn. As the flashlight shone a wide arc, he could see what had probably been chicken cops at one time off to one side of the house, and in the overgrown yard, the silhouettes of a large shed and a doghouse. A rain barrel stood by the house door and he could see that it was nearly full. It appeared that the house had no electric service, as Markson shoved him through the front door, he noted an oil lamp was the only source of illumination in the kitchen. They passed by a derelict stove and a simple kitchen table that looked like it had seen better days. An open archway led into another room, the living room he realised, judging by the furnishings. Another oil lantern sat on the coffee table. Markson set the flashlight down next to it. Liz was sitting on one of a pair of couches that Reid estimated were probably at least as old as he was.

 

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Several monitors flashed images alternately as Garcia continued to delve into the lives of Liz Sanderson and Ronald Markson. Although she’d found high school transcripts and college entrance exam results for both of them; every address at which they’d ever resided and driver’s license records for both, she was still unable to find out anything conclusive regarding the paternity of Liz Sanderson’s baby. One of her searches beeped its conclusion and she turned her attention to that screen to peruse the latest readout. There was no evidence Liz Sanderson had become involved with anyone else. Garcia was more and more convinced that the unsub was probably the baby’s father. Her brow furrowed. But Markson hadn’t kidnapped the child. And he must have known the baby was at the house. Penelope reasoned that custody wasn’t the issue at the heart of Markson’s transgression and shared this information with Hotchner via text message.

 

Beside the main computer monitor sat her three smartphones: a Samsung, a Blackberry and an iPhone. The one closest to her, her iPhone6, was currently sending a continuous feed to the cell phones of Lewis, Rossi, Jareau and Hotchner. 

 

Just under two hours earlier, during the thunderstorm in Iowa, the FindMyFriends app on Garcia’s iPhone lit up, and indicated that Reid’s had been switched on. Garcia smiled at the iPhone as she recalled that happy moment. The initial signal had been lost but then reconnected intermittently for the duration of the storm.

 

“Hotch! Sir,” Garcia recalled their conversation, using her Samsung phone. “The storm must have passed through. Reid’s iPhone just pinged mine; the FMF app is sending me a clear continuous signal. He’s moving. Which I suppose might mean the car’s moving and he’s still in that car. Or at least his phone is. I’m doing a thing”--Garcia had long ago given up on detailing specifics to Hotch about what code she wrote, what macros she designed and what laws she was circumventing to facilitate alterations to people’s computers and cellphones—“so I can route that signal back to all you guys so you can find our missing man.” 

 

“Excellent, Garcia, I’ll let the team know,” Hotch had said, promising to keep her updated. He’d done that, calling her less than an hour later to let her know they’d tracked Reid to the abandoned auto shop. While Hotch didn’t specify exactly what they’d found, he had explained there was proof Reid had been there, and they had started moving again. The team and their local law enforcement backup were currently tracking Reid and his captor. 

 

As she’d concluded her call with Hotch, she heard the theme music for Dr. Who. Hurriedly, she cradled her Samsung and picked up the iPhone.

 

“That’s Reid’s ringtone!” she said aloud to herself as she swiped it on and answered, “Reid? Reid are you there?”

 


	14. Chapter 14

She heard shuffling sounds and muffled words. Noises that sounded like strained breathing and engine humming. Realisation set in. He’d called her to let her know what was going on but was likely not in a position to safely speak. Quickly, she muted the microphone so no noise from her end would be heard wherever the phone was. But she wanted to record and monitor the incoming audio and set that in motion immediately, feeding the signal to the computer on her farthest right. She turned the volume up to a level where she could easily monitor it, did another thing which would automatically reconnect Reid’s call if it were disconnected for any reason, and then called Hotch back to let him know.

 

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“At least give me some water, Ronnie,” Liz implored. He’d dropped her onto a decrepit and threadbare old couch in the farmhouse living room. The wood floors were scuffed and covered in dust and dirt. A small table lay on its side next to the larger of two nearly identical couches; pieces of its broken glass top littered the surrounding part of the grimy floor. An oil lantern sitting on the larger coffee table between the couches illuminated the room well enough that Liz could see the old fashioned painting on the wall and the drawn sheer curtains on the front window. She had worked her way into a seated position on the larger couch after Markson had gone back out to get Reid. When he returned with Reid, he pushed the agent down onto the floor in front of the smaller couch across from Liz. Markson fished through his pockets and let out a grunt of complaint when he realised he’d misplaced the cable ties.

 

 Eyeing Reid, he warned, “I’ll be right back. Don’t move and don’t try anything.”

 

He walked through the archway back to the kitchen and as soon as he was out of sight, Reid chose one of the larger, more jagged-edged pieces of glass from the broken tabletop and slid it under the couch to conceal it. He made sure he reassumed the exact position Markson had left him in. Reid and Liz could hear Markson rummaging through drawers and cupboards and soon he returned holding a toaster and drinking from a bottle of whiskey. He sat in a chair opposite Liz, took a swig from the bottle and set it down then pulled his knife from his pocket. After severing the cord from the toaster, he tossed the toaster and laughed as it slid along the floor back towards the kitchen. He knelt by Reid and retied his feet together using the cord from the toaster. Reid pulled himself into a sitting position and Markson didn’t protest. He went back into the kitchen. Reid heard the door open and the sound of water splashing, Markson was probably filling the mug from the rain barrel he surmised. Only a few seconds later, Markson returned.

 

He approached Liz and held the mug out to her. Although her hands were still tied, she managed to hold the mug up to sip water from it. After quenching her own thirst, she held it out to Markson.

 

“Give him a drink, too, Ronnie,” she requested, indicating Reid. Markson took the mug from her, and turned to hand it to Reid who refused it with a shake of his head. 

 

“Suit yourself,” he said, putting the mug on the table and taking another swig from the whiskey bottle.

 

Finally, he sat back down in the chair. He tapped his foot nervously, and cradled his gun in his hand. Reid watched him carefully; noticed he seemed to be blinking a lot and trying to keep alert. He’s tired, Reid realised and deliberately yawned. Almost immediately, Markson yawned too.

 

“Ronnie, please. Please let us go,” Liz begged. He sat bolt upright, realising he’d almost fallen asleep and told her to shut up.

 

“Becky needs me, Ronnie. She needs her mother.” Liz was near tears, trying desperately to hold herself together.

 

He waved the gun at her. “Why should I care?”

 

Reid spoke up. “You don’t want to hurt Liz, Ronald. You know that baby is innocent. And she needs her mother.”

 

“Please Ronnie. She’s just a little baby.”

 

Markson tipped the bottle up to his lips again. He shrugged dismissively then stared at Reid as though he was seeing him for the first time. He pointed at Reid’s hands with his gun in hand, noticing the wedding ring on Reid’s finger.

 

“You married?”

 

Reid thought of Melissa and a smiled crossed his face as he nodded affirmatively.

 

“Got kids?”

 

Again Reid nodded.

 

“Son? Daughter?” Markson asked, his demeanor softening and he leaned forward. Reid got the impression Ronald Markson was genuinely interested in hearing about Anna.

 

“One daughter,” Reid answered simply, not wanting to give more family details to this man. Markson looked at him expectantly. Reid thought for a moment and recited, “Your daughter will hold your hand for a little while, but hold your heart for a lifetime.”

 

“Oh, Dr. Reid, that’s lovely,” Liz smiled through her tears. Markson looked from her back to Reid.

 

“Author unknown,” Reid told them. Markson muttered under his breath. 

 

“It sounds like you have a wonderful family, Dr. Reid,” Liz said, with just a hint of envy in her voice.

 

“They’re the light of my life,” Reid agreed.

 

“Ain’t no light like that in my life,” Markson remarked, and suddenly turned towards Liz brandishing his gun. “Thanks to you!” 

 


	15. Chapter 15

He stood up, took another long drink and then threw the bottle at Liz. She ducked the missile and it smashed against the wall behind her, splashing the last of its contents all around, showering her with whiskey and shards of glass.

 

“Who is he, Liz? Who’s Becky’s father?” Markson shouted at her. He was at least semi-drunk, and becoming angrier and angrier. His back turned to Reid, he knelt down in front of her and pointed the gun at her head, repeating the question and accusing her of sleeping around. 

 

Reid moved quickly. Keeping one eye on Markson, he reclaimed the piece of glass from under the couch where he’d secreted it earlier and hurriedly but carefully moved his bound wrists back and forth across the glass to cut the tie. The plastic gave way easily. Turning his attention to his feet, he sawed through the toaster cable binding them, but it seemed to be taking an eternity. Finally, after the longest fifteen seconds of his life, the cable gave way and Reid’s feet were free. He rose to his feet, just as Markson happened to turn around and suddenly the two men stood face to face.

 

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Half an hour earlier, the chirp of the computer caught Garcia’s attention and she entered a command into the keyboard. Seconds later, she heard the whispering voice of Spencer Reid.

 

“Garcia? He’s gonna be coming back so I can’t talk long, I turned that Friends thing on, the team should be able to track us. If you can hear me, please let Hotch and everybody know I’m okay. And tell Melissa I love her.”

 

“Oh my God,” Garcia exclaimed and punched the number for Hotch into her phone immediately. “Listen, Sensei! I just got this from Reid’s phone.” She played the short message for Hotch.

 

“Thank you Garcia, I’ll relay that to the team. Anything else?”

 

“Nothing else directly from Reid himself. But the call is still open, and the noises are like outside, Boss. Wind. Rain. Possibly wildlife. Traffic sounds way off in the distance. But there’s no engine hum anymore.”

 

“They’ve stopped moving. The team is out tracking him; using that App you’ve streamed us into. It shouldn’t be long now. We’ll have Reid back soon, Garcia.”

 

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“I’m just gonna make us some herbal tea, Melissa, don’t you move, okay?” Will instructed her. He went in to the kitchen then came right back to ask, “Can I let the pup outta that cage? He’s awake and whinin’.”

 

Melissa stifled a smile and nodded. Muttli came running into the living room and Melissa bent down to scoop him up. Once again, the ‘no dog on the furniture’ rule was ignored as he made himself comfortable on the sofa next to her. Will returned in a few minutes bearing mugs of tea and sat on her other side. Muttli pushed his nose into Melissa’s side until she relented and petted him. To distract Melissa, Will asked her about the children’s day, wanting to know how they’d spent their day and Melissa told him all about their picnic.

 

“Henry would really like a dog,” she smiled, and pulling out her phone, showed Will the photo she’d taken of Muttli giving Henry a tongue bath. 

 

Will laughed heartily, “Not sure JJ would ‘preciate that.”

 

“I sent her the picture,” Melissa confessed. “Earlier today. Before I knew—“ she paused and sighed. Will put his arm around her and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

 

“He’s gonna be okay, Doll. I promise you.”

 

Nodding, Melissa reasserted her positivity. They sipped their teas in friendly silence. Muttli fell asleep and Melissa drew her hand away, not wanting to disturb his slumber.

 

“Look at him. Not a care in the world except food and sleep,” Will whispered, envying the dog his carefree life.

 

“And where his next hugs come from,” Melissa added. Will thought fleetingly of turning on the television and just as quickly dismissed that idea. Instead, he asked Melissa if she’d like to play cards or something to help pass the time. 

 

“No thank you Will. I’m really not in the mood.”

 

“Of course not, I’m sorry, Melissa.” 

 

“Tell me about growing up in New Orleans,” she requested and Will obliged, launching into a prolonged monologue about his hometown that would have made the city’s Chamber of Commerce proud. Intentionally, he included as much detail about as many things as he could remember, thinking that the longer he spoke, the more Melissa would relax, and, he hoped maybe she’d even fall asleep. He stroked her arm as he talked and, just as he’d wished, after about fifteen minutes, her head nodded and her body went slack next to him. 

 

He sat quietly so as not to disturb her and listened to her breathing. He could sense her chest rise and fall with each breath and when he was convinced she’d descended into a deep enough sleep, he rose off the couch, and stretched her out on it, regrettably having to wake the dog to accomplish this. Muttli was returned to his kennel, surprisingly enough without protest or complaint. Will hurried up the stairs to the bedroom, retrieved a blanket and returned to the living room to cover Melissa with it. 

 

He sat in her favourite armchair and pulled out his cell phone, composing a text to JJ.

 

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	16. Chapter 16

Rossi turned off the highway and north onto the secondary road as he followed the directions JJ relayed from the FMF app on her phone. She saw she had a text from Will and smiled as she read it, but immediately her concentration returned to the job at hand, and she returned the FMF app to the foreground.

 

“We’re almost there,” she exclaimed as the distance between their two points closed in on one another. “It won’t be long now.”

 

Behind her in the SUV’s rear seat, Tara Lewis expressed her hope that neither Reid nor the other hostage had been hurt. Rossi nodded his concordance with this supposition.

 

  Before long, JJ pointed out the window to Rossi’s left,

 

“Look!” JJ was indicating the group of neglected buildings that corresponded to the indicator on the phone app.

 

“Perfect hiding spot. If you don’t know you’re being tracked,” Rossi quipped. He shut off the SUV’s lights and pulled over to the side of the road and parked. The two local law enforcement backups did likewise and their four occupants quickly met up with the three FBI agents at the end of the overgrown laneway leading up to the stand of derelict buildings JJ had pointed out.

 

Rossi gave everyone instructions and they quietly descended on the house and outbuildings. Two of the Cedar Rapids officers moved right to check out the barn, the other two followed Lewis and went around to the back of the house.

 

JJ and Rossi crept carefully up towards the front door of the house. Over behind the barn, they saw an old Ford Taurus. Rossi spoke quietly into his wire, giving the plate number of the vehicle to Hotchner who immediately relayed it to Garcia. Opening the door silently, JJ motioned to Rossi. He bent to listen to her whisper,

 

“There’s movement in the next room where there’s light,” indicating the living room. He nodded as they readied themselves then burst in.

 

“FBI. Hands up!” Rossi commanded, gun drawn and takedown posture at the ready.

 

“Easy, Rossi, I’m on your side,” Reid remarked. He was in the process of cutting the tie that bound Liz Sanderson’s wrists. Behind Reid, splayed out on the floor, was the unconscious body of Ronald Markson.

 

Rossi immediately dropped his stance and moved to secure Markson, handcuffing him even though he was unconscious.

 

JJ surveyed the room quickly, then bent to remove the bindings from Liz’s feet and helped her to stand. She was a little wobbly and asked for water. JJ complied, taking the mug from the table and getting water from the rain barrel she’d seen at the door.

 

The Cedar Rapids officers came into the house to report to Rossi,

 

“Barn’s clear. So’s the shed in the back. That car matches the description of one stolen from the mall parking lot earlier tonight.”

 

Rossi acknowledged them and then indicated they could return to the station. “He,” Rossi’s hand swept through the air to indicate Markson lying on the floor, “Isn’t going to jail just yet. Ambulance will have to take him to the hospital first.”

 

Smiling as he clicked on his cell phone, Rossi took in the sight of Reid’s latex gloved hands. His cell connection made, he apprised Hotch of the situation and set his phone on speaker to include the unit chief in the conversation, then addressed Reid: “What the hell happened here, Genius?”

 

Reid rose and explained, “While Markson was distracted by Liz and some discord over her baby, I freed myself using a piece of the broken glass from that table,” he pointed it out and continued. “After I stood up, I guess he heard me and he turned around. When he raised his gun to shoot, I just yelled at him ‘You don’t wanna do that’ and he paused for a second. Just long enough for me to grab that flashlight off the table and swing it at his head.” He indicated the mentioned item, still lying on the floor next to Markson.

 

Rossi’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Good job,” he responded before digging a hand into his pocket and pulling out a bunch of evidence bags.

 

“Guess I knocked him out,” Reid dropped to his knees and reached under the couch, retrieving Markson’s gun from where he’d kicked it several minutes earlier. Holding it out, he dropped it into the evidence bag Rossi proffered.

 

“I used his knife to cut Liz free,” Reid continued, dropping the referenced item into another bag.

 

“Bagged the suspect without firing a shot,” Rossi commended, impressed.

 

“Medical is on the way, they should be there momentarily,” Hotchner told them. “Reid?” he asked.

 

“Yes, Sir?”

 

“Good work. You all right?”

 

“Yes, Sir.”

 

“Good. Glad to hear it,” Hotch replied. “Reid?”

 

Reid’s brow furrowed, “Yes, Sir?”

 

“When Medical is done with you, please call Melissa.”

 

A smiled crossed his face, “Yes, Sir,” he said compliantly, but wondered why the boss would want him to call her at this hour of the night.

 

“I’m waiting for you all back at the station.”

 

Reid looked to Rossi and JJ, a question on his lips but before he could say anything, Rossi spoke.

 

“Oh yeah, I found these,” he said, taking Reid’s keys from his pocket and tossing them to the younger man, who caught them out of the air.

 

“My iPhone!” Reid realised and ran out the door to the Taurus. The tow truck driver who’d been called by the local officers was just in the process of hooking the Taurus up to his rig. Reid scrambled to the front passenger side and reclaimed his phone from under the seat.

 

He saw the long list of missed calls and missed texts and was conflicted. Part of him wanted to laugh, but mostly he was concerned about the amount of upset Melissa could be experiencing as they’d now gone more than forty-eight hours without speaking.

 

Reid immediately keyed in Melissa’s speed dial number. As he did so, he realised it would be almost three am back in DC but it had already begun ringing. His call was answered on the second ring.

 

“Hello,” drawled a male voice.

 


	17. Chapter 17

Reid looked askance at his phone then put it back up against his ear.

 

“Hey, Spencer, is that you? You all right, man?”

 

“Will!” He recognised the voice finally.

 

“Yeah. Lemme get Melissa for ya,” he replied.

 

Reid walked back towards the house, reaching the door just as the first of two ambulances arrived on scene. He held open the door as the first responders went in to attend to Ronald Markson and Reid decided to stay outside to talk to Melissa.

 

“Spence?” 

 

“Hey, Melissa, sorry to wake you but Hotch—“

 

“You’re okay?” she cried in a relieved voice. “Oh my God, Spence, you’re all right?”

 

“Yeah. I. What—“ he paused when he heard her crying. “Melissa, what’s wrong?”

 

“Oh my God,” Melissa struggled to compose herself, relief now overwhelming the fear and tension of the last few hours. “Hotch called me, he didn’t want me to see that you’d been kidnapped on the news. Will came over because they all thought I shouldn’t be alone. Oh Spence, you’re all right?”

 

“Yeah. Yeah I’m good. Sweetheart, I’m sorry I didn’t call you the last few nights, I—“

 

“Don’t, Spence. You couldn’t help it. I’m just happy to know you’re okay. It’s over, I guess?”

 

“Kidnapper’s been captured, yeah. I got knocked around a bit, Melissa and I’m pretty sure they’re gonna make me stay in the hospital overnight for observation.”

 

“You’re safe. That’s what’s important.” She was almost breathing normally, hearing his voice and his own assertion that he was all right gave her the confirmation she needed.

 

“The EMS are here now, they wanna have a look at me, Melissa, I’m gonna have to go. Thank Will for staying with you for me, will you? I’ll call tomorrow cause I wanna talk to Anna too. Love you.”

 

“I love you too, Spence. Good night for now.”

 

He put away his phone and complied with directions from the ambulance attendant; vital signs were taken and antiseptic daubed on the open wound on his temple. The bleeding had stopped but his face was still streaked with blood and dirt. Both he and Liz were required to go to hospital; Reid had the ambulance take Liz, he opted to have Rossi take him in the FBI SUV and the ambulance attendant acquiesced to this arrangement.

 

Rossi texted Hotchner to let him know they were all headed to the hospital with Reid and would meet him at the station later. As soon as their call ended, Hotchner called Garcia to let her know Reid had been successfully recovered.

 

“Reid is safe, Garcia, we found him thanks to your,” he paused for emphasis, “thing. Markson’s been taken into custody. And Liz Sanderson is all right as well. You did exemplary work on this, Garcia. I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of you than I am right now. It’s been a long day. A long two days, actually. I want you to pack up shop there and go home. Sleep. All day. We might be coming home tomorrow, I don’t know yet. But I will text you when I figure that out and let you know when I expect you back at the office, but right now, I’m thinking Tuesday. Thank you again for your dedication.”

 

After concluding the call with Hotch, Garcia was overwhelmed. Tired. Hungry. Relieved. Exhausted. Elated. She wasn’t sure where to begin and decided a good cry might be the ticket. Laying her head down on her arms at her desk she gave in to the urge to cry for a few minutes. It did her a world of good. Afterward, she felt cleansed and refreshed and reenergised enough to trust herself to drive home. Shutting down the computers, she gave the one that had been relaying the tracking information an affectionate pat and a whispered ‘thank you.’  She picked up the iPhone and thanked it for its help in finding Reid. Finally, she packed all three of her cellphones into her oversized purse, then turned off the office lights and left to go home.

 

It was after four am when Melissa finally convinced Will it was all right for him to leave and go back to work. Or home, if his shift was done. She’d get the last few hours of sleep before the three children would be up and she assured him she’d be fine. Thanking him again for his support, she hugged him and had to coax him out the door and then she headed to up to bed.

 

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	18. Chapter 18

“No, Lewis, you and JJ go home. Dave and I will finish up with the case here. We’ll bring Reid home with us once he’s discharged,” Hotch was insisting.”

 

“All right, Hotch. You win. But we’ll take commercial flights home, and leave the jet for you guys.” She picked her coat and purse up from the conference room chair she’d left them on, and thanked Hotchner as she strode out the door. JJ was waiting for her in the outer office; she had just returned from the hospital.

 

“We’re to go home, Hotch and Rossi will come home with Reid,” Lewis told her, “How’s he doing anyway?”

 

“Dying to get out of there, as you can probably imagine,” JJ told her. “I left him with a couple of crossword puzzle books, hopefully they’ll keep him occupied for a while.”

 

Lewis laughed. “Yeah. Like maybe five minutes.” The Cedar Rapids liaison officer approached them.

 

“Ladies? The captain asked me to take you to the airport. This way,” he directed them out to a waiting unmarked cruiser. Twenty minutes later, they were thanking him and headed into the terminal to arrange flights. JJ was disappointed to discover there were no nonstop flights. They’d have to fly first to Detroit and after a forty-minute layover, on to Washington. It would be mid afternoon before they got home.

 

She texted the information to Will, and ended her text with ‘we need to have an important discussion, but not on the phone. Love you.’ Lewis and JJ ate breakfast in an airport restaurant and then headed to the departure lounge to await their flight.

 

Hotchner met with the Cedar Rapids captain and had stern words with him about the release of information that could have jeopardised their investigation, and the safety of a federal agent. The captain assured Hotchner he would find out who was responsible for leaking the information to the media, and promised that the offender would be dealt with. Satisfied, Hotchner returned to the conference room where Rossi was waiting for him. The two men boxed up the files for the case, cleared the map, photos and Post-It Notes off the bulletin board, restoring the conference room to a pristine state. 

 

“Breakfast, Aaron?” Rossi asked him.

 

Hotchner nodded. “Yeah, and then we’ll go debrief Reid. I hope he called Melissa.”

 

“He did. Last night when you told him.”

 

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Melissa awoke and reached for her Saltines. Surprisingly, Michael hadn’t awakened her. She glanced at the alarm clock. 755 am. Swallowing the crackers, she rose and tiptoed out to the spare bedroom. Henry was still sound asleep and she crept silently past him. Michael lay on his side and she stifled a giggle. The baby was snoring. 

 

She made her way downstairs and let Muttli out of his kennel into the yard. He toddled back into the house after doing his business and sat down beside his food bowl expectantly. 

 

“What a good boy you are!” she praised. They’d been teaching him to sit and wait to be fed. It had taken many prompts in the past, and Melissa was happy to see he’d learned another skill so easily. She filled his bowl with his food and stood over him.

 

“Let’s see if you remember the next part,” she said aloud, setting the bowl down on the splash mat. Muttli didn’t move. He remained still, sitting though he turned his face up to look at her, waiting for his cue. She smiled at him, patted his head and still he didn’t move.

 

“Good boy, Muttli,” she praised, protracting the word good like it had about a dozen ‘o’s in it. “Go and eat!” she gave him his cue and then he moved to devour his breakfast.

 

Melissa was relieved to find she didn’t feel nauseous this morning. The Saltines really did help, she thought. Even better, she felt ravenously hungry. She busied herself making pancake batter, set it in the refrigerator and retrieved a bottle for Michael. After heating it up in the microwave, she took it upstairs and looked in on him. Michael was still asleep but Henry’s bed was empty. 

 

A quick check down the hallway told her someone was in the bathroom. Assuming that was Henry, she opened Anna’s bedroom door and saw her daughter was busy getting dressed. 

 

“Good morning, Sweet Pea,” she said in a soft voice, not wanting to startle Anna.

 

“Hi Mommy!” Anna yelled, and raced over to hug her. “Is it time for Michael’s bottle?”

 

“I don’t think he’s up—“ Melissa started, and was interrupted by the sudden wail from the baby, “yet,” she laughed. “Just let me change him, Anna, and then you can give him his bottle.”

 

After pancakes for breakfast, the two older children raced to the playroom to play with Anna’s train set. Henry had spotted it on the shelf yesterday but they’d happily spent the day with Lego. When Henry had asked about the train at bedtime, Anna had promised him they’d play with it the following morning. It was Anna who had returned to the kitchen and asked if Michael, who was sitting contentedly in his high chair with a couple of Cheerios, could play with them.

 

“That’s very sweet Anna, but there’s a lot of toys in your playroom that Michael is just too small to be playing with. They could be dangerous for him.” Melissa explained.

 

“Can’t he be in his playpen with us?”

 

“I suppose so, Honey, but you can’t give him little toys he could accidently swallow.”

 

“Mommy, he can play with his own toys. I just don’t want him to feel left out,” Anna’s eyes filled with tears.

 

She gathered Anna up in a hug and fought back her own tears, “Oh, Anna, that is just so sweet of you.” Melissa took Anna’s hand and led her to the playpen in the living room. “We’ll move this to your playroom then and Michael can be with you. Is that what you want?”

 

Anna nodded and together they hauled the playpen to the playroom. She waited as Melissa unstrapped Michael, removed him from the high chair and sat him down in the playpen. Anna gathered his baby toys and set them within his reach all around him while he burbled happily.

 

“There,” she said. “Now we can all play together.”

 

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	19. Chapter 19

“And the doctor says I have to stay for observation until tomorrow morning,” Reid was telling Hotchner rather unhappily. His fingers and hands were covered in scratches and abrasions; his wrists bore the marks of having been bound for more than a day; and there was a cut next to his lower lip. At his temple, a bandage peaked out from under the tousled hair. He saw Hotchner looking at it and explained.

 

“Stitches. I think he said four of them from when Markson bashed me in the head. Doctor thinks there might be a concussion.” He listed off the symptoms, “I don’t have fuzzy or double vision. I don’t feel groggy, I’m not light sensitive and I’m not having any issues with concentration. But I suppose I might have exhibited some symptoms last night when they brought me in here.”

 

  Hotchner nodded acknowledgment then spoke, “Dave told me you took down the unsub singlehandedly. He was already out of commission by the time the team arrived.”

 

Blushing, Reid shrugged. “He made it pretty easy. He’d been drinking whiskey. And he was distracted by Liz. I just waited for the opportunity to present itself, and he gave it to me when he put the gun to Liz’s head. Hotch, how is she?”

 

“She’s gonna be all right, Reid. Ronald Markson will probably end up incarcerated for life. Ms. Sanderson said she couldn’t risk Becky’s life. While Markson had shown some signs of turning things around, his temper and alcohol issues just kept coming between them. She’s going to take Becky and move in with her mom and start a new life.”

 

Reid nodded. “Glad to hear it.”

 

Hotchner smiled. “I can’t wait to read your full report on this case once we’re back at Quantico, Reid. No hurry, though, just to be clear.” He gave Reid’s shoulder a tap, and continued in a serious tone, “Listen, I’m really sorry we worried Melissa like that. I didn’t want her finding out about your kidnapping on the television news.”

 

“It’s okay, Hotch. Melissa understands.”

 

“Well I’m gonna get Dave and go back to the hotel and do what paperwork we can. If your doctor gives the okay, we’ll all go home tomorrow. I’ll let you rest now.”

 

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“And thank you so much, again, Melissa, for taking the kids like this on such short notice,” JJ told her as she took Michael from Melissa’s arms and tucked him into the waiting stroller. “I’ll have Will come by later to pick up the rest of the gear. I hope they weren’t too much trouble.”

 

“Oh geez, no. JJ. None at all. Michael and Henry are little angels. We had a great time at the park. Anna loves them both, she can play with Henry, and she gets to give the baby his bottle.”

 

“Henry!” JJ called out, then resumed chatting with Melissa, “It’s like he doesn’t want to come home,” she laughed. “Oh, and thanks for that adorable photo of Henry with Muttli. Of course, now he wants a dog.”

 

“He did very well with Muttli. I needed to see to Michael and Muttli needed outside at the same time and Henry dealt with it.”

 

“Henry?!” JJ called again.

 

“JJ, did you see Spence before you came back to DC?”

 

“I went to the hospital with him, Melissa. He’s okay. A little banged up, but he’s good. They’re just holding him for observation because he took a blow to the head, but he’s okay, Melissa, I promise you. He was cracking Spencer jokes.”

 

“Spencer jokes?”

 

“Yeah, sorta like a dad joke but worse, cause most of us won’t get it,” JJ laughed.

 

Henry finally appeared. “Mom!” he exclaimed, rushing to hug her.

“Are we going home now?” he asked. JJ nodded and Henry pointed out, “I hafta help Anna pick up the toys first though.” Before anyone could reply, Henry turned and raced back to the playroom, calling out to Anna.

 

JJ and Melissa laughed. “He’s not so anxious to help clean up at home,” JJ remarked.

 

“Spence and I are pretty strict about rules and cooperation and everybody helping. Spencer feels that it instills responsibility. And Henry just fits right in when he’s here.”

 

“Henry’s responsible enough at home. But he’s just never been a big fan of cleaning.”

 

Melissa nodded. “Me neither! I’m with him,” she laughed.

 

The children returned, Henry put on his shoes and turned to thank Melissa for looking after him. Anna handed JJ a stray toy of Michael’s that had been missed earlier when they’d packed up Michael’s things. Melissa ruffled Henry’s hair and told him he come over anytime. Anna and Melissa waved goodbye as JJ maneuvered the stroller out the door and across the front porch. Henry helped her get it over the step down onto the driveway and they made the short trek home, eleven houses down the street from the Reid house. 

 

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	20. Chapter 20

Melissa called her work the next morning to tell them she wasn’t feeling well and was going to the doctor and asked if they would they please reschedule all her clients. Concluding that call, she then made an appointment with her doctor. JJ picked Anna up to take her to school. No sooner had Melissa shut the door behind them, she felt nauseous, the worst bout of nausea so far. She barely made it to the main floor powder room. Ten minutes later, the nausea subsided, she decided to go back to bed for a while. Her doctor’s appointment wasn’t until 1230 and she hoped to feel better by then.

 

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The three men climbed aboard the jet, led by Aaron Hotchner. Once aboard, he directed Spencer Reid to the long seat where the younger man did as he’d been instructed and laid down to sleep. David Rossi followed, carrying both his own and Reid’s go bags which he quickly stowed in the storage unit at the front of the plane. Once Hotchner had Reid settled he joined Rossi who had set out two glasses of Scotch. Hotch raised a questioning eyebrow.

 

“Really Dave? It’s barely noon.”

 

“It’s after one, DC time, Aaron,” Rossi corrected with a smile, “besides, we’ve earned it.” Indicating Reid with a nod of his head, Rossi asked “Kid gonna be all right?”

 

Hotch nodded, taking a sip of his Scotch.

 

“He did good work. Thinking on his feet, our technophobic brainiac thought to use the smartphone to his advantage.”

 

Hotch smiled. “I’m having a hard time believing Reid is as technophobic as he lets on. I didn’t know about that FindMyFriends thing, did you?”

 

“Not a clue. But to be honest, Aaron, I think The Kid was taught by the best. Penelope Garcia. She did say, after the Shreveport case, she was gonna drag him into the twenty-first century if it meant kicking and screaming.”

 

“I don’t recall hearing any screaming or seeing any kicking, Dave,” Hotch teased.

 

Rossi laughed, raised his glass and toasted, “ But he does have a tablet and an iPhone now. To the twenty-first century.”

 

“And its gadgets and gizmos.” Hotch added.

 

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“Thanks for the ride, Hotch,” Reid said as he opened the car door and exited the vehicle. He opened the rear door and lifted his go bag from the seat.

 

“Are you okay to carry that, Reid?” Hotchner asked him.

 

“I’m good, thanks Hotch. See you tomorrow?”

 

“No. You’re off until Thursday, doctor’s orders. Or did you forget?” For just a moment, Hotchner wondered whether the younger man actually did have a concussion.

 

“No, I was hoping you did,” he replied, a little sheepishly. “Thursday then. See you. And thanks again for dropping me off.” 

 

With a small wave to his boss, Reid started up the walkway to the house. It was just after two o’clock in the afternoon. When he reached the door, he set the bag down and fished in his pockets for his keys.

 

Melissa heard Muttli bark and went to investigate. She saw him pawing at the front door and hurried down the hallway from the kitchen. 

 

“Shhhh, Muttli! Shush! Good boy.” Muttli was learning to bark when someone came to the door although he seemed to do this instinctively. It was proving to be a lot more difficult to get him to stop barking once he’d been acknowledged. He barked again and again Melissa shushed him. She reached the door and was just about to check through the peephole when the handle turned and the door opened.

 

Muttli went crazy, barking and jumping as a familiar bag hit the floor beside him. Reid dropped to his knees and allowed the dog to greet him, though, unlike Anna, he did not like Muttli licking his face. Muttli, bless his heart, had already learned this and greeting Spencer consisted of wildly wagging his tail and pawing at him, poking his nose into Spencer’s chest, hoping for-–and getting--chin and ear scratches and belly rubs.

 

“Good boy, good boy Muttli,” Reid patted the dog’s head. “Good to see you too,” he scratched under the dog’s chin then directed, “Okay, then, pup, away you go.” Muttli knew his turn was over and made his way back to his water bowl in the kitchen.

 

  Spencer stood back up and drew Melissa into his arms, letting out a deep breath and hugging her close. They stood locked together in an embrace for a long time, neither wanting to let the other go. Reid ran one hand through his wife’s hair, stroking it and tipping his face down to kiss the top of her head.

 

Melissa had been running her left hand up and down his back and when he moved to kiss her she brought her hand from his back to his face, touching the spot on his temple beside the bandage covering the stitches. Their eyes locked on one another and Spencer bent his head down so their lips could meet in a searching kiss. Her fingers touched the cut on his lip, her brow furrowed as concern crossed her face.

 

“I’m okay,” he reassured her. “It’s so good to be home. And I’m so sorry you had to go through all that worry.”

 

“It’s okay. I understand why Agent Hotchner did what he did. And Will was here, he was great,” she replied, “And it is so good, so damned good, to have you back home safe.” Melissa loved the way they fit together: he was just tall enough that she fit under his chin when they were standing together as they were now. She snuggled into that position, burying her face into his shoulder and neck, kissing along his throat until he moved his hand to cup her face and tip it up to reestablish eye contact.

 

“I love you, Melissa. And the entire time I was being held captive, I never let go of that thought. That I’d get out of there safely and come back home to our love. You. And Anna. I promise you, no matter how dangerous you think my job is my intention is always to come back home safe to you. To us. Statistically speaking, my job is actually less dangerous than you think. Law enforcement didn’t even make the top ten. The highest risk occupation in terms of deaths per thousand is actually workers in the logging--” he paused midsentence, realising Melissa probably wasn’t going to care about statistics and percentages. Instead, he just tightened his hug and repeated his first statement “I love you, Melissa.”

 

“I love you too, Spence.”

 

“Anna’s at school?”

 

She nodded.

 

“You’re not mad at me I hope.”

 


	21. Chapter 21

She stepped back from their hug and stared at him. “What?” she was incredulous. “What the he—,” she stopped then started again, “Why would I be mad at you?” She stroked his cheek, and then took his hand and walked towards the living room, leading him alongside her. She gave him a slight push to make him sit down on the sofa, and he immediately pulled her down across his lap, enfolding her in his arms.

“We talked about this before we married. Remember?”

He nodded and let her continue.

“I knew going in that there would be a certain amount of risk in your job. Hell, I saw you get shot and nearly die, remember? Spence, of course I don’t like that you’re in danger sometimes. But it comes with the territory. You’ve trained for this. You’re experienced dealing with it. And despite the inherent risks involved, I know you love your job, you love helping people, catching bad guys and you’re damned good at what you do. I wouldn’t want you to change a thing.”

She heaved a deep breath, rearranged her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder.

“I wouldn’t have known about this at all if there hadn’t been the leak to the media, would I? You would have come home and explained away the cut and the stitches as minor collateral damage during the takedown or some such, wouldn’t you?”

He licked his lips and nodded, “Something like that, yeah. I don’t like to bother you with the gory details of our cases.” A thought crossed his mind and he asked, “Are you sure you’re not mad?”

She actually smiled and shook her head. “I’m not mad. You guys are a team and you look out for each other. Catch the bad guy, but safety of all personnel has always come first, right?”

“Always. Especially now since there’s actually someone to come home to at the end of the day.”

She kissed him again and got up off the couch, extending her hand to him. He took it and rose to follow her lead.

“I have something I want to show you,” she told him as they headed up the stairs. She paused in front of the spare bedroom at the top of the staircase. He looked into the room over top of her head and saw nothing unusual. The only thing different was Michael’s portable bed still set up against one wall. They continued on into their master bedroom and indicated that he should sit down on the end of the bed as she walked into their ensuite bathroom.

As much as he adored Melissa and cherished making love with her, he hoped she wasn’t planning such an encounter right now. Despite his assurances to his doctor and later to Hotch, Reid really was still experiencing headache and residual pain from his injuries. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to engage in intimacy and worse, didn’t want to have to disappoint Melissa.

She was in and out of the bathroom before he finished the thought and didn’t appear to have amorous intentions, to his relief. Instead, she was holding a small shopping bag, and as she sat down beside him on the bed, she handed it to him.

“What’s this?”

He eyed her. She seemed somehow different, he thought. Nervous. Anticipatory. Happy. Yet anxious. He was good at reading people. But right now, Melissa was a complete mystery. His focus returned to her eyes and she smiled. 

“Open it,” she directed.

His attention turned to the bag, opening it; he removed a small soft package wrapped in tissue, and a rectangular box. He set the smaller package down for a moment as he registered what the box said. His eyes widened as he read ‘home pregnancy test,’ and he gasped as he opened the box and removed the plastic stick inside.

“Melissa,” he breathed, barely able to speak as he saw the digital readout. “Does this mean what I think it means?” he asked in a shaky yet thrilled voice.

She nodded and his eyes filled with tears. Drawing her into his arms, test stick still in hand, he held her close and sobbed quietly for a few minutes, the emotion of the moment completely overwhelming him. She ran one hand up and down his back and then brought her other hand up to his face to wipe at the tears on his cheeks.

“Sorry,” he began only to be interrupted by her fingers touching his lips to shush him.

“It’s fine, I had the same reaction,” she started, “happy tears, I’m assuming?”

He nodded and blinked as a few more tears slipped out. Melissa felt her own eyes well up and they kissed happily for a moment.

“I went to the doctor today, hope to have confirmation in the next day or so. But I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant.”

He bit his lip and shook his head slightly, “I thought the day I married you was the happiest day of my life. But. Wow. I—“ he was at a loss for words and Melissa almost found that funny. They hugged and held each other for a long moment then Melissa leaned back and took his hand, laying it on the smaller package, which still sat on the bed next to Spencer. 

He picked it up and opened it, finding a small size onesie inscribed ‘My Daddy is a Genius!’ Spencer laughed, a deep hearty laugh and hugged Melissa close to him.

“I’m taking this in to work with me. This,” he gave the onesie a little shake, “is how I’m gonna tell everyone we’re having a baby, Melissa.”

“I love that idea,” she said, ruffling his hair. “But not yet, Spence. If you don’t mind, I’d like to wait until after the first trimester.”

“Of course, Sweetheart. Whenever you say. And,” he considered for a moment and said, “I think we really ought to tell Anna before we tell anyone else.”

Melissa agreed with that assertion, and watched as Spencer carefully wrapped up the onesie and put it back in the bag, and into the night table drawer.

“This is gonna be a long three months,” he realised. “I can’t wait to tell everyone that we’ve made a new life. Together.” 

 

-fin-

 

the next story in the series, "And Then They Were Five" is currently being edited and beta read and will be up shortly.


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